Customer Reviews

DE CHIRICO: The Metaphysical Period

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is on the highest level of scholarship and aesthetic criticism, bringing together many facets of art, philosophy and literature that gave birth to de Chirico's great works. Paolo Baldacci is a brilliant and erudite writer and an expert on this important, original artist. I am very disappointed that this excellent work is now out of print. The reproductions are of the highest quality as well, and this is a book that should be on the shelf of everyone interested in surrealism.

More than its many full-color and good-sized reproductions of the great artist's best paintings, this book also offers much fascinating text to illuminate the many influences that shaped the life and work of this supreme creator of enigmatic clarities.

True surrealism is the most profound form of art because it tackles the absurdities and contradictions of our modern world and helps us to work them out through our Subconsciousness and dreams. The first time I saw an exhibition of de Chirico's works, I had extremely vivid and memorable dreams for a week after and felt "cured."

But like any religion that can deeply touch people, Surrealism, once it became famous also attracted its fair share of quacks and charlatans. This is why de Chirico is so important: In the same way that Patti Smith was 'punk' before Punk Rock was officially invented, de Chirico was a surrealist before the Surrealist Movement took conscious shape with Andre Breton's shrill "Manifesto of Surrealism" in 1924. De Chirico didn't jump on the bandwagon. He was pulling it!

This worthy but pricey (therefore minus a couple of stars) book focuses on this early period when de Chirico was happily pursuing his own path into the twilight, undisturbed by the excessive fuss that the Surrealist movement and its showmen, like Dali, later whipped up.

Paintings like "The Endless Voyage" (1914) 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.

Setting the stage with his deserted cityscapes painted with sharp contrasts of light and shadow, distorted perspectives, and a blurring of the border between interior and exterior, de Chirico evokes a haunting, ominous, but strangely relaxing dream world. This deep psychological aspect of his paintings has him constantly reinterpreting themes, leading to recurrent motifs. In these early paintings lavishly reproduced in this massive tome, he constantly uses statues as focal points, later replaced by his trademark faceless mannequins. Other mysterious objects further increase the element of enigma.

De Chirico was a surrealist more by accident than design and his work relied less heavily on overt humor and shock than the more famous surrealists who followed him, like Dali and Magritte. De Chirico's focus was always on beauty and the creation of moods through an appeal to a deeper psychological language. For this reason, while much surrealist work has dated like an old joke, Chirico's art is still as fresh as ever.

This book is for those just discovering De Chirico, as well as those who have valued him for many years. The color reproductions are many and excellent. His various subjects are presented in developing groups; great idea. This painter was so honored in the heyday of surrealism; because he was the most original; the pioneer of a large sweeping mood of painting. You can read as much of the text as you wish; but don't be discouraged by the endless rambling of the author; he just didn't know when to stop. If you were not a De Chirico fan when you get this book, you will be when you own it.

This book a great resource for people who are studying de Chirico--not only does it contain tons of illustrations, but it has provenance and condition information for all of de Chirico's Metaphysical paintings. This is especially useful if you want to know which paintings of his were owned by the Surrealists, who often re-titled his works.

At the same time, however, this book is incredibly difficult to use. THERE IS NO INDEX. Why? I don't know, but I do know it's annoying. If I wanted to only know about de Chirico's relationship to Apollinaire, instead of just looking up the man's name in an index, I have to skim through the entire freaking book. aaaaaaaaaaargh. And let me tell you, Baldacci's "prose" is dry dry dry dry dry. Furthermore, when Baldacci is trying to cite something, instead of just giving the reader his sourse or spelling out his reasoning, he just tells you to look at a previous part of the book (but of course not where exactly one is supposed to look). Yay, now I have to skim through more of this freaking tome.

Basically, this book is essential for people studying de Chirico, but I would not read it for entertainment.

excellent photos.

a fascinating period, the pre-surrealist era. not much has been
published about de chirico's brother, alberto savinio, musician, poet, and painter, who contributed more to de chirico's development than commonly known.

unfortunately this book is marred by poor organization and writing. after developing interesting thoughts, baldacci then admits that there is not evidence to support his suppositions..."probably", "if", "doubtless", "we can even imagine", and so on. i've read better papers by undergraduates. better writers would summarize where baldacci chooses to drag in long, diffuse quotations.

baldacci is fascinated by unknowns about de chirico. much about the past may remain unknown, a fact of life.