De Chirico’s Calligrammes

13 April 2016

Pera Museum is proud to present an exhibition of Giorgio de Chirico, a pioneer of the metaphysical art movement and one of the most extraordinary artists of the 20th century.

Take a look at one of Giorgio de Chirico’s greatest graphical achievements, Calligrammes!

Calligrammes (1930) 

In 1930, Éditions Gallimard published G. Apollinaire’s 1913 poetic work Calligrammes, which is illustrated with sixty-six monochromatic lithographs by de Chirico. Paying homage to his dear friend Apollinaire, Calligrammes constitutes one of de Chirico’s greatest graphical achievements in terms of originality. Exhibited here in its interiority, he chose to illustrate Apollinaire’s poems with the Sun on the Easel theme that he had recently developed in Paris. Often depicting two suns or moons connected to one another via a cable, one appears illuminated whilst the other celestial body is ‘turned off’. The flow of power between the two stops at a certain point. De Chirico places this sun-wire-sun or moon-wire-moon motif in both interior and exterior architectural settings.

Highlighting his various periods with examples from his earliest works to last ones, Giorgio de Chirico: The Enigma of the World exhibition took place at the Pera Museum between 24 February - 08 May 2016.

A Night at Pera Museum

A Night at Pera Museum

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Pera Museum invites artist Benoît Hamet to reinterpret key pieces from its collections, casting a humorous eye over ‘historical’ events, both imagined and factual.

At the Order of the Padishah

At the Order of the Padishah

In this piece, Żmurko presents an exotic image of a harem chamber, replete with gleaming fabrics and scattered jewels, as a setting for the statuesquely beautiful body of an odalisque murdered “at the order of the padishah”. 

Souvenirs of the Future

Souvenirs of the Future

You try to remember the future. A bird painted on the ceramic panel in a historical palace has found its place on the wall. The tiles of a church and a mosque have been painted on canvas. The pattern of a centuries-old ceramic plate appears before you on a velvet curtain.