GIORGIO DE CHIRICO, quotes on art & life and statements on Metaphysical Painting + biography facts
Giorgio de Chirico (1888 – 1971), artist quotes on painting and his art statements. De Chirico was an Greece-born Italian famous painter-artist and the founder of the art style ‘Pittura Metafisica’ (Metaphysical Painting). Metaphysical Painting art appeared very inspirational for artists in later Surrealism. De Chirico himself however turned back later in life to a more ‘classical’ art style; he learned a lot from the great master-painters of early Renaissance like Giottto and Ucello.
* At the bottom more biography facts & art links for information on the famous Italian artist Giorgio di Chirico.
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Giorgio di Chirico: Piazza d’Italia, painting on paper |
Giorgio de Chirico, his artist quotes on painting art and Metaphysical Painting
- To become truly immortal a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken it will enter the regions of childhood vision and dream.
* quote on his method of his painting art; transcending logic and common sense: ‘On mystery and Creation’, Giorgio de Chirico, Paris 1913, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 231
- Profound statements must be drawn by the artist from the most secret recesses of his being; there no murmuring torrent, no birdsong, no rustle of leaves can distract him.
* source of statement by the artist: ‘On mystery and Creation’, Giorgio de Chirico, Paris 1913, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 232
- What I hear is valueless; only what I see is living, and when I close my eyes my vision is even more powerful.
* statement on the power of the visual worlds in imagination: ‘On mystery and Creation’, Giorgio de Chirico, Paris 1913, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 232
- It is most important that we should rid art of all that it has contained of ‘recognizable material’ to date, all familiar subject matter, all traditional ideas, all popular symbols must be banished forthwith. More important still, we must hold enormous faith in ourselves; it is essential that the revelation we receive, the conception of an image which embraces a certain thing, which has no sense in itself, which has no subject, which means ‘absolutely nothing’ from the logical point of view… …should speak so strongly in us, evoke such agony or joy, that we feel compelled to paint.
* his quote with reflections on the conception and painting of images ‘On mystery and Creation’, Giorgio de Chirico, Paris 1913, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 232
- I remember one vivid winter’s day at Versailles. Silence and calm reigned supreme,. Everything gazed at me with mysterious, questioning eyes. And then I realized that every corner of the palace, every column, every window possessed a spirit, an impenetrable soul. I looked around at the marble heroes, motionless in the lucid air, beneath the frozen rays of that winter sun which pours down on us ‘without love’, like perfect song.
* art statement on the living character and power of things and buildings he painted frequently: ‘On mystery and Creation’, Giorgio de Chirico, Paris 1913, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 232
- Perhaps the most amazing sensation passed on to us by prehistoric man is that of presentiment. It will always continue. We might consider it as an eternal proof of the irrationality of the universe. Original man must have wandered through a world full of uncanny signs. He must have trembled at each step.
* quote with statement on the ‘prehistoric man’ and presentiment as a continuing phenomenon in human history ‘On mystery and Creation’, Giorgio de Chirico, Paris 1913, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 232
- Everything has two aspects: the current aspect, which we see nearly always and which ordinary men see, and the ghostly and metaphysical aspect, which only rare individuals may see in moments of clairvoyance and metaphysical abstraction. (1919)
* source of his quote on metaphysical perception: “Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries”, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 440
- We know the joys and sorrow to be found in a gateway, a street corner, a room, on the surface of a table, between the sides of a box… . An astronomy of things is established by the perect knowledge of the space an object should occupy in a picture, and of space that separates one object from another… … the canons of the metaphysical aesthetic lies in the minute and precise use of surfaces and volumes.
* from his text: Metaphysical Aesthetic, 1919; as quoted in ‘Morandi 1894 – 1964’, published by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco – 2008; p. 291
- A work of art must narrate something that does not appear within its outline. The objects and figures represented in it must likewise poetically tell you of something that is far away from them and also of what their shapes materially hide from us. A certain dog painted by Courbet (French 19th century Realism painter, fh) is like the story of a poetic and romantic hunt. ( quote by de Chirico in 1919, ed.)
* de Chirico’s artist quote on the narrative power of visual things in painting art: “Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries”, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 440
- The structure of cities, the architecture of houses, squares, gardens, public walks, gateways, railway stations, etc – all these provide us with the basic principles of a great Metaphysical aesthetic… …We, who live under the sign of the Metaphysical alphabet, we know the joy and sorrows to be found in a gateway, a street corner, a room, on the surface of a table, between the sides of a box…
* source of his quote on Metaphysical aesthetic in painting ‘things’ like houses, railway stations (a favourite motif of De Chirico for his paintings; his father was engineer in railways constructions, fh): ‘On metaphysical aesthetic’, Giorgio de Chirico, 1919, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p . 233
- Perfect knowledge of the space an object should occupy in a picture, and of the space that separates one object from another, establishes a new astronomy of things attached to our planet by the magic law of gravity. Canons of the Metaphysical aesthetic lie in the minutely-accurate and precisely-estimated use of surfaces and volumes… …We are building in paint a new Metaphysical psychology of things.
* his quote on Metaphysical aesthetics; volumes, surfaces and location in space: ‘On metaphysical aesthetic’, Giorgio de Chirico, 1919, as quoted in ”Letters of the great artists – from Ghiberti to Gainsborough -”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p. 233
- Among the many senses that modern painters have lost, we must number the sense of architecture. The edifice accompanying the human figure, whether alone or in a group, whether in a scene from life or in an historical drama, was a great concern of the ancients. They applied themselves to it with loving and severe spirit, studying and perfecting the laws of perspective. A landscape enclosed in the arch of a portico or in the square or rectangle of a window acquires a greater metaphysical value, because it is solidified and isolated from the surrounding space. Architecture completes nature. (1920)
* Chirico’s quote on the value of architecture for modern painters and painting: “Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries”, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, pp. 440-441
- He (Morandi, fh) endeavors to discover and to create anything on his own; he patiently grinds the paint, prepares the canvases and looks fixedly at the objects gathered all around him-from the loaf of bread, dark and streaked by crevices like an ancient rock, to the limped form of the glasses and the bottles. He gazes at a group of objects upon a table with the emotions which stirred the heart of a voyager in ancient Greece when he looked in wonder upon woods and valleys and mountains deemed to harbour fair and startling divinities.
He looks with the eyes of a man of faint, and the innermost skeleton of these things which for us are dead, because immobile, appears to him in its most consoling facet: in its eternal aspect.
* source, a presentation by de Chirico for the Italian famous stillife painter Morandi, written by De Chirico in the catalogue of La Primaverile fiorentina, in 1922; as quoted in ‘Morandi 1894 – 1964’, published by Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco – 2008; p. 198
not sourced artist quotes of the famous Italian painter artist De Chirico; founder of Metaphysical Painting
- My paintings are small but each one is an enigma.
- To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere but once these barriers are broken it will enter the regions of childhood vision and dream. (De Chirico’s statement on creating immortal works of art)
Giorgio de Chirico: biography facts of the great Italian painter artist who initiated Metaphysical painting
Giorgio de Chirico was born in Greece; his father was an engineer. De Chirico himself also studied engineering at the Polytechnic in Athena. In 1905 di Chirico went to Munich, studying art. Here he got strongly impressed by the art of traditional painter artists like Böcklin and Klinger. From 1911 De Chirico lived and worked in Paris and discovered the modern Cubist art of Picasso, Braque and Appolinaire. In 1915 De Chirico returned to Italy, to the city Carra where he stated as an independent painter his art movement ‘Pittura Metafisica’ (Metaphysical Painting); it was his reaction and his answer to the modern and dynamic art options of both Futurism and Cubism; his ‘Metaphysical Painting’ was concentrated on the ‘static’ and the timeless aspect of art; any movement was eliminated.
In autumn of 1919 De Chirico published an article entitled “The Return of Craftsmanship”, in which he advocated a return to art following traditional methods and iconography. This article was the definitive shift in his artistic orientation, as he adopted a classicizing manner, inspired by the old painter-masters like Giotto, Ucello, Raphael and Signorelli. De Chirico wrote several essays on art and other subjects. De Chirico won praise for his work almost immediately from French writer Guillaume Apollinaire, who helped to introduce his work to the later Surrealists. The Italian painter Carlo Carra met de Chirico in Hospital during World War I and claimed to have invented the movement after copying de Chirico’s work. This was not true, but Carrà was important to metaphysical painting for popularizing it among other Italian Futurists. Aside from De Chirico and Carrà, other Italian painters associated with metaphysical art include Giorgio Morandi and Filippo De Pisis.
Art links for more biography information and life facts of Giorgio de Chirico and Metaphysical painting
* biography and life facts of the Italian painter artist Giorgio de Chirico, on Wikipedia
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* The Giorgio and Isa de Chirico Foundation, with biography facts and art comments
* image gallery of the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, in the MOMA
