The visionary work of Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) had an enormous impact on the course of twentieth-century art. His unsettling 'Metaphysical' imagery - with its illogical perspectives, looming mannequins and bizarre juxtapositions of objects - anticipated Surrealism's fascination with the irrational and the workings of the subconscious by many years. Even before the First World War, de Chirico had declared: "To be really immortal a work of art must go beyond the limits of the human: good sense and logic will be missing from it. In this way it will come close to the dream state, and also to the mentality of children."
The visionary work of Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) had an enormous impact on the course of twentieth-century art. His unsettling 'Metaphysical' imagery - with its illogical perspectives, looming mannequins and bizarre juxtapositions of objects - anticipated Surrealism's fascination with the irrational and the workings of the subconscious by many years. Even before the First World War, de Chirico had declared: "To be really immortal a work of art must go beyond the limits of the human: good sense and logic will be missing from it. In this way it will come close to the dream state, and also to the mentality of children."