Metaphysical Art

18 March 2016

Portrait of Madame L. Gartzen 1913,
Oil on canvas, 72,5 x 60 cm.

Private Collection, Roma  The year 1910 marked not only a turning point in de Chirico’s career but also in the history of art. Following several months living in Florence, the artist experienced his first metaphysical revelation before the dominating statue of Dante and the Basilica of Santa Croce in Piazza Santa Croce. It provided him with “the strange impression that I was seeing everything for the first time. Influenced by 19th century philosophical thought, particularly by Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Weininger, de Chirico spent the ensuing eight years in Florence (1910-1911), Paris (1911-1915) and Ferrara (1915-1918) lending tangible form to his unique understanding of metaphysics through enigmatic works of his immediate surroundings and everyday objects that harbour an inherent sense of discovery and revelation. His early metaphysical corpus includes eerily empty Italian piazzas with long shadows inhabited by a solitary statue of Ariadne or that of a politician, disquieting faceless mannequins, and claustrophobic interiors filled with random juxtapositions of geometric instruments, maps, bizarre objects and the motif of paintings within paintings.

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.

Sea Baths

Sea Baths

It is understood from Evliya Çelebi’s well-known Book of Travels that the history of sea baths goes as far back as the 17th century; their acceptance and popularization take place in mid-19th century as a result of Westernization, among other things.

Janine Antoni Look At Me!

Janine Antoni Look At Me!

The exhibition Look at Me! Portraits and Other Fictions from the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection examines portraiture, one of the oldest artistic genres, through a significant number of works of our times. Through the exhibition we will be sharing about the artists and sections in Look At Me!. This time we are sharing about Janine Antoni , exhibited under the section “The Conventions of Identitiy”!

Family and Shared Cultural Histories  <br>Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Family and Shared Cultural Histories
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Pera Museum, in collaboration with Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), is one of the main venues for this year’s 15th Istanbul Biennial from 16 September to 12 November 2017.