De Chirico and Surrealist Artists

24 March 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. This part of Giorgio de Chirico: The Enigma of the World exhibition, called “Between Surrealism and Mediterranean Myth (1924 -1935)” illustrates de Chirico’s relations with Surrealist artists and the important artworks he created during his first years in Paris. 

Between Surrealism and Mediterranean Myth (1924 -1935) 

Temple in a Room, c. 1926, Oil on canvas, 46,7 x 55,2 cm.
A. Pallesi̇ Art Gallery Collection, Monaco 

During the early 1920s, André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, together with Paul Éluard, the Surrealist French poet, made contact with de Chirico and enjoyed a brief convergence de vues between 1923-1925. Breton was profoundly taken by the artist’s metaphysical production of 1910-1918, much of which he and the Surrealists had acquired in Paris soon after the war. Attracted by this interest, de Chirico moved to Paris with his companion Raissa Gourevitch in late 1925. The transition marked another stylistic change, with de Chirico developing much new and highly original subject matter such as Furniture in the Valley, The Gladiators, Trophies, Sun on the Easel, The Archeologists and Horses on the Seashore.

Horses And Ruins on the Seashore, 1927, Oil on canvas, 91,7 x 73,7 cm.
Courtesy Farsetti Arte, Prato

The Surrealist insistence, however, on the geniality of the artist’s early artistic output, to the complete detriment of his post-1918 work, soon became a point of irreparable contention, and their relationship definitively ruptured in 1926. From that moment forth, de Chirico would find himself having to defend his post-1918 artistic choices as well as counter Surrealist-led defamatory accusations including the phenomenon of forged works; it was the Surrealists were actually the first to fake his work.

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.

Reality Bites!

Reality Bites!

Works by a large number of students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo deal with current and often painful themes from the socio-political, economic and cultural reality, raising awareness, appealing, warning, opening issues and offering new interpretations.

Paula Rego in Istanbul!

Paula Rego in Istanbul!

We, by which I mean some of my classmates and I, knew about Paula Rego. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t know where Rego was from or even where in Europe Portugal was. I thought she was English. Let me tell you how I first heard the very un-English sounding name “Paula Rego”

From two portraits of children…

From two portraits of children…

The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Orientalist Painting Collection includes two children’s portraits that are often featured in exhibitions on the second floor of the Pera Museum. These portraits both date back to the early 20th century, and were made four years apart. One depicts Prince Abdürrahim Efendi, son of Sultan Abdulhamid II, while the figure portrayed on the other is Nazlı, the daughter of Osman Hamdi Bey.