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Story by Jack Foley |
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ONE of the most innovative and controversial artists of the 20th century,
Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) is the subject of a new exhibition at The
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art until April 13, entitled Giorgio
de Chirico and the Myth of Ariadne.
Chirico's enigmatic paintings, with their dream-like imagery of deserted city
squares filled with mysterious shadows, stopped clocks and sleeping statues,
had a profound influence on modern art.
A reclining statue of Ariadne, the princess of Greek mythology, in an empty,
sun-drenched piazza, is an important element of de Chirico’s ‘Metaphysical’
iconography.
According to legend, Ariadne was abandoned by her lover, Theseus, on the desert
island of Naxos after he had slain the Minotaur and escaped from the labyrinth
with the aid of her thread.
This melancholy subject appealed to the artist, who had a nostalgic interest
in the classical past. A symbol of exile and loss, the anguished figure of
the sleeping Ariadne haunted de Chirico’s imagination during his early
years in Paris, a time of intense loneliness for him.
The mystery and melancholy found in these pictures, completed between the
spring of 1912 and the autumn of 1913, resonates in his work throughout his
long career.
The
exhibition brings together key works of the Ariadne series from private and
public collections around the world and includes such masterpieces as The
Soothsayer’s Recompense (1913), along with related drawings and sculptures.
These iconic works, which were to have such a powerful impact on the Surrealist
paintings of Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst, are complemented by a selection
of later paintings on the theme of Ariadne, whose serial approach foreshadows
the work of Andy Warhol, a close friend of de Chirico in the 1970s.
The works on display offer visitors a valuable opportunity to examine the
early and late works in relation to one another and to analyse the autobiographical
symbolism of these haunting images.
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square, London,
N1 2AN. Tel: 020 7704 9522. Opening times: Wednesday to Saturday, 11am - 6pm
and Sunday 12 noon - 5pm
Rail/Underground: Highbury and Islington (Victoria Line), 4 stops from Oxford
Circus and 1 stop from Kings Cross. Silverlink Metro to Highbury and Islington
Station. Network Southeast to Essex Road Station.
Buses: 271 to door; 4, 19, 30, 43 to Upper Street/Canonbury Lane; 38, 56,
73, 341 to Essex and Canonbury Roads