De Chirico and the United Kingdom (c.1916–1978)

Abstract

Along with Giorgio Morandi and Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio de Chirico is one of the few modern Italian artists whose name is familiar to the British museum-going public. Like them, he is a figure whose importance transcends national boundaries, and whose enigmatic work is widely recognized as possessing universal significance. In fact, de Chirico was an international artist in every sense: born in Greece, he spent extended periods of time not only in Italy but also in Germany, France and the United States. Now, the artist’s less intimate – although highly significant – relationship with the United Kingdom has been exhaustively chronicled for the first time in Victoria Noel-Johnson’s lengthy study. An immense work, it reveals that de Chirico’s reputation in the UK as one of Italy’s pre-eminent modern painters is nothing new, and how this status was cemented through his representation in over eighty exhibitions in Britain during the course of his extraordinary career.