“Painting is a magical art, it is the fire set alight by the final rays in the windows of a rich dwelling as in those of a humble hovel, it is the long mark, the damp mark, the fluent and still mark etched on the hot sand by a dying wave…”
— Giorgio de Chirico, ‘Painting’, 1938
The paintings of Giorgio de Chirico are among the most iconic of Italian 20th century art, but few know about the artist’s prolific literary legacy. This panel will discuss the way our reading of de Chirico’s written work, which includes theoretical and critical essays, poems, prose and love letters, informs the way we understand his painting, as well as the stylistic evolution of an artist whose unusual artistic career began with a more radical and much admired metaphysical period and evolved into a more ‘baroque’, painterly style.
The talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition at Tornabuoni Art London on Albemarle Street, which brings together for the very first time original manuscripts by de Chirico and artworks spanning the artist’s entire career.