The New DE CHIRICO

By ISABELLA FAI
 

THE pictures at the recent exhibition organized by the Royal Society of British Artists were painted by Giorgio de Chirico during the last ten years. These paintings are the result of long, difficult research which de Chirico has pursued and is still pursuing to the end of restoring to painting that great quality which was possessed by the works of the masters of the past. This great quality continued almost until the middle of last century, when the tradition was rudely interrupted. This interruption caused the loss of technical secrets of painting, secrets which consisted in the grinding of colours, the preparation of glazes on canvases and wood panels, the oleoresinous varnishes with which the old masters mixed their colours. These secrets of the art of painting, forming a great artistic heritage, were handed down from generation to generation and were constantly enriched by new experiences and a continuous perfection of means obtained by artists of genius.

In the treatises on painting, old as well as new, there are only the vaguest indications of the manner of painting of the old masters; thus Giorgio de Chirico has been forced to work during many years with patience and perseverance in order to acquire the means which have given him the possibility of painting in a way that is absolutely different from that of his contemporaries.

Painting, in spite of the thickness of impastos, presents always a uniform surface. It is this substance which allows the artist the exceptional modelling that one can obtain only by a great fusion of tones and of tints and which gives the force of volume and that magic illusion of a reality idealized by art. The pictures of Giorgio de Chirico have the mysterious vibration which characterizes the works of true painting.

I draw the attention of the public to the pictorial aspect of the works exhibited, for the true interest of a painting consists exactly in its pictorial value, that is to say in the mastery of its execution and in the beauty of the substance.

Giorgio de Chirico is a pioneer. His work is detached from the artistic production of his epoch, and surpasses it, in surmounting the barriers set up before his contemporaries. His talent has aided it to find the objective towards which he must go. Giorgio de Chirico has understood that in painting he has only one course to follow: always to paint better.
 

EDITOR'S NOTE.-Following the much publicized criticism of `modern' art by Sir Alfred Munnings, President of the Royal Academy, and de Chirico's own lecture to the Royal Society of Arts condemning the decline of technical accomplishment by artists, this article will be of interest to those who believe that art, like water, will find its own level in any age.

 

Illustrations

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO.

Above: Self Portrait in a 17th-century Costume

Left: Garret of a Philosopher

Opposite, top : Fruits toil Landscape

Opposite, right : Lady Bathing