De Chirico and Surrealist Artists

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.