The Mindscapes of De Chirico

Two Horses by a Lake

With an exhibition including the work of Rene Magritte and Paul Delvaux coming to the Isetan next month and the current exhibition of over 100 works by the great Italian 'metaphysical painter' Giorgio De Chirico at Shibuya's Bunkamura, it seems there is much demand for surrealist art in Japan, as if this aesthetic, more than any other, reflects life in this confusing country.

This exhibition traces the career of this long-lived (1888-1978) painter, who, mainly working in oils, played such an important role inspiring and developing surrealism.

In the same way that Patti Smith was punk before punk rock was invented, Chirico was a surrealist before the movement took conscious shape with Andre Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924. His early work features deserted cityscapes which through sharp contrasts of light and shadow and distorted perspective, evoke a haunting, ominous dream world. Salvador Dali, in particular, was heavily influenced by this format. The exhibition unfortunately lacks examples of these early groundbreaking cityscapes, but makes up with some excellent later examples such as The Secret of the Portico (1973) and The Grand Metaphysician (1971).

Initially using statues as focal points in his paintings, he later introduced faceless mannequins into his work along with other mysterious objects, increasing the element of enigma. The earliest works on display, such as The Endless Voyage (1914) and Evangelical Still Life (1916), show a jarring clutter of objects setting up intangible lines of tension, often with humorous results. In effect, his art works like the human brain, abstracting images and objects from their natural context and relocating them to the landscape of the mind and memory.

The Grand Metaphysician

This deep psychological aspect of his paintings has him constantly reinterpreting themes, leading to recurrent motifs such as gladiators, towers, and horses. The large range of works featuring horses is one of the successes of the exhibition. Usually depicting two horses prancing in the surf with some suggestion of classical ruins in the background, he juxtaposes the speed of the fleet-footed animals against the slow but incessant action of the sea, creating a feeling of the transitory nature of life set against the eternal. The broken columns that litter so many of these works, such as The Horse Trainer, Castor (1938-40), suggest the span of lives cut short, a natural theme for a man who served in the Italian army in World War I. These equine works also allowed him to achieve some of his most outstanding compositions such as Wounded Man Unhorsed (1938).

A surrealist more by accident than design, Chirico was not merely an idea painter. Throughout his long life, he constantly strove to improve his technique, mastering a wide range of styles, including Renaissance and Flemish. After the revolutionary period of his youth, in his middle years, he turned away from the publicity grabbing stunts and often black humor of the movement he had so heavily influenced, and developed instead a conservative academic style, becoming a successful society portrait painter. The results of this period are represented by the Rubenesque Achilles on the Shores of the Aegean (1945) and what almost appears to be a Canaletto: Venice, St. George Island (mid 50s).

The reemergence of his surrealist art in his later life shows a rich accumulation of techniques coming to fruition. Disquieting Muses (1960) shows the usual elements of confusion but with a richer sense of color, while School of Amazons (c.1970) show an effortless humor.

Unlike other famous surrealists, Chirico's work relied less heavily on overt humor and shock. His focus was always on beauty and the creation of moods through an appeal to a deeper pyschological language. For this reason, while much surrealist work has dated like an old joke, Chirico's art is still as fresh as ever.

C.B.Liddell
The Daily Mainichi
12th December, 2000