DE CHIRICO, GIORGIO (Italian, 1988-1978)

Giorgio De Chirico was a painter, a sculptor a theatrical designer and a writer. As an artist, De Chirico won praise for his work almost immediately from writer Guillame Apollinaire, who helped to introduce his work to the later Surrealists . Other artists who acknowledged De Chirico's influence include Max Ernst , Salvador Dalí , René Magritte, and Philip Guston . De Chirico strongly influenced the Surrealist movement.

Born in Vólos, Greece, from Italian parents, Giorgio studied at first in Athens and later in Münich at the Academy of Fine Arts. At this time he became interested in the art of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. He then moved to Italy and subsequently to Paris where he was included in the Salon d'Automne in 1912 and 1913 and in the Salon des Indépendants in 1913 and 1914. In this period De Chirico met Constantin Brancusi , André Derain, Max Jacob, Pablo Picasso and painted a highly influential group of paintings evoking dream-like architectural visions of Italy developing a style, known as Metaphysical painting. Because of the war, in 1915 de Chirico returned to Italy, where he met Filippo de Pisis in 1916 and Carlo Carrà in 1917; they formed the group that was later called the Scuola Metafisica. . From 1918 his work was exhibited extensively in Europe and in 1928 he held his first exhibition in New York and shortly afterwards, London . In 1929 de Chirico designed scenery and costumes for Sergei Diaghilev�s production of the ballet Le Bal. He finally set in Rome with his second wife in 1944 untill his death.

De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images.