Exhibition Giorgio De Chirico in Paris

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On Friday in the Municipal Museum of Modern Art in Paris has opened a retrospective of Giorgio De Chirico. I translated two articles.
The first - a rather impersonal and conformist views, but it contains interesting elements, was published in Le Figaro. The second, more interesting, was published in the newspaper Le Monde L1.

Mysterious Giorgio De Chirico

Le Figaro, 13.02.2009
Veronica Prat

He fascinated Apollinaire, Breton, Picasso, and Chagall. And in ten years critics denied in his work of any kind was dignity, and artists expelled him from its midst. Why such a turn of 180 °?
Exhibition in Paris trying to find a solution "secrets De Chirico"

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«If I had died at age 31, as sulfur, or 39, as Apollinaire, megodnya I would have considered one of the greatest artists of the century. You know what they say, these critics are idiots? What's most important Surrealist artist - it's me, Kiriko. Do not Dali, Magritte did not, not Delvaux. Ya. But Chirico died in 1978, in voschraste 90 years. And the irony of fate creative Giorgio De Chirico, who played with him a cruel joke, really gave him every reason to vent their bitterness and resentment.

He was born in 1988 in Volos (Thessaly). His father, sitsuilianets, was a construction engineer. His mother, a native of Genoa, she loved art. After the death of her husband in 1905, they moved to Munich. Giorgio joined the Academy of Fine Arts. One would assume that he was influenced by Kandinsky, who discovered abstract art, but no, most of all he was struck by the German romantic artist - Arnold Bocklin and Max Klinger, fantastic architectural elements in their paintings fascinated youthful Chirico. In music, it implies Wagner. In the literature - Nietzsche. "The novelty of this poet - wrote Chirico, - lies in its mysterious and lonely dreams - as if he were dreaming in svetny autumn day, when the shadows grow longer than in summer, as the sun rises is not that high. I wanted to express a strong feeling that was found in the books of Nietzsche. The logical consequence of these biases - after vozvryascheniya Chirico in Italy in 1909 on his first canvases depicted dramatic desert architectural ensembles, in which light is fighting with shadows. Sandwiched between fragmented geomertiey Cubists and stylistic revolution of abstract art, Chirico took refuge in fantasy, in a strange mskusstve had set himself to depict stopped time. In his "area of Italy" established equestrian monuments and statues in his paintings are always present arcade leading away into the distance to the horizon, shaded porches with strict lines, illuminated by golden light of the Mediterranean Sea. They reigns an atmosphere of emptiness, expectation, no. Soon, the new story - disturbing mannequins, armless and blind, the main characters of this painting, which he Chirico called "metaphysical". Linens 1914-1916, called "disturbing muses," Great metaphysician, proclaim alarming climate of "Castle" Kafka and Borges' labyrinth. Chirico at this time had not yet turned 30.

In Paris Surrealists, preispolnknnye enthusiasm, consider Chirico its forerunner. Their enthusiasm Bezmer, it is the surprise and delight with which they opened Chirico for themselves. Later, Chirico admitted that it was admiration for the Surrealists was not deceived: "When they saw my pictures, they decided to repeat with me their focus with customs Rousseau: the brilliant but naive artist, which Breton has taken under his wing. Few months I have them podigryval ... On Saturdays, from five to eight, we met with Apollinaire. There were Brancusi, Derain, who did not open his mouth, and Max Jacob, who spoke without umloku. On the walls hung works by Picasso, Marie Laurence, Cubists. Late, Apollinaire hung two or three of my canvas, including portrait, which I wrote with him. /famous prophetic portrait, where the temple of the poet depicts target - exactly in the place where he was wounded in the war. The Museum of Modern Art exhibited some ten studies showing the significance of this metaphysical period, including the undisputed masterpiece - "The Enigma of a day.

This period ended as suddenly as it began. Chirico and changed the subject, and form, he was caught in the paraphrase, repeating what has been stated, and the works exhibited in the halls of the past shows that he lost svyakoe critical sense in relation to his creativity.
He explained that once, in the summer of 1919, passed by Titian paintings on display at the Villa Borghese, he received the revelation of the great painting - he found the road to Damascus. From that day, he renounces his earlier works, attacks on contemporary art and calls for a return to the technique trecento and kvattrochento. His friends do not understand: Chirico, who wrote the dream, now speaks only of the traditions.
Surrealists, for whom anathematization was a favorite pastime, cursed him: "If he even tried to create the illusion of a lost genius, - says Breton - but making assiduous copy of his earlier works, he wants only one thing - to sell his painting is not one times, but two. As an artist can make fun of their own work? How can he offer buyers just written copies of his early works under the guise of the originals? Chirico replied to this with Olympian calm that he preferred his own copy of the product from the less gifted forgers. We are not trying at all costs to protect the "second manner" Chirico, but we must admit that during his wonderful first period he wrote several works of weak, but on protyazhnenii the second period, which is called "decadent", he managed to create two or three masterpieces, for example, "Prodigal Son". Because unlike Rambo, Chirico did not change profession. He remained an artist, and the question to be answered: Who is he, this Chirico, a brilliant creator, "metaphysician", or a mediocre imitator of himself? Those who love him, say that it is impossible to walk the streets of Turin without being reminded of his early work with endless nostalgia. Others will deplore the fact that in the 20 years he had not gone to Harare to trade slaves.