Giorgio de Chirico
Italian, born Greece, 1888–1978
“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 realms of childhood visions and dreams.”
Giorgio de Chirico was born and raised in Greece, where he received drawing training. When de Chirico’s family moved to Munich in 1906, he was exposed to nineteenth-century German philosophy and Symbolist painting, both of which would deeply inform his aesthetics. His response to the great Italian piazzas in 1909–1910 yielded the enigmatic cityscapes in deep perspective for which he would become known. De Chirico moved to Paris in 1911, where he met poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire, who christened his style “metaphysical painting.”
Let de Chirico inspire your students to:
- Create a simple one-point perspective drawing, and then add images cut from magazines that are not to scale.
- Design the set for a school play.
- Go outside and trace shadows with sidewalk chalk.
Find out more from The Museum of Modern Art:
The Song of Love, gallery label text, publication excerpts