The Memoirs of Giorgio de Chirico

No Italian painter of this century has aroused so much comment, from eulogy to outright condemnation, as Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978). One of the initiators of surrealism, he is a key figure in modern art; his influence on later painters, particularly during his "metaphysical" period, is second only to Picasso's. De Chirico relied on imagery from the unconscious to create art with mythological, philosophical, and historical overtones. De Chirico began to write as soon as he began to paint - his painting was complemented by his writing. John Ashbery has called his novel "Hebdomeros" the finest of the surrealist novels; his poems, articles, essays, criticism and metaphysical writings are insightful. His memoirs belong to the great tradition of Italian autobiography, as vivid as those of Benvenuto Cellini and Vittorio Alfieri. Like those writers, de Chirico told his life story in a vein of militant egocentricity, rich in imagination and imagery. The self-portrait that emerges is a projection of the obsessions and inner conflicts of an artist who, gradually insulating himself from crumbling values, became convinced of his own creative supremacy at the centre of the universe. This edition comprises both volumes of the "Memoirs", along with "The Technique of Painting", a chronological table, and a bibliography of his writings.