The Enigma of Giorgio de Chirico

Book excerpt: Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) was best known for his metaphysical paintings, but he also wrote poems, articles about art, an autobiography, and the first surrealist novel. Even more mysterious than the paintings, is the man himself: secretive, self-centered and contradictory, supercritical, ironic, and humorless, yet creative in ways he probably hardly understood. He did not share the Surrealists' overt preoccupation with the erotic, but was obsessed with memories of ancient mythology, 19th century German philosophy, metaphysics, and the secrets of creativity. With these obsessions, he tried, unconsciously, to solve the problems of his own sexuality which he concealed within. A loner, who never formally aligned himself with the Surrealists, or any other artistic movement, he produced several thousand works of art, with many changes of style. These were praised by Guillaume Apollinaire, Andre Breton, Max Ernst, and paul Eluard. He has remained one of the most baffling and memorable of those associated with the Surrealists.