The Fabulous Fiction of Two Surrealist Artists: Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst

Abstract

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO, noted for his metaphysical paintings of deserted squares, uninhabited buildings in haunted dream worlds, is also the author of a novel which appeared in 1929, at the time of his association with surrealism. Max Ernst, an artist of far greater range, whose paintings, by their bold revelations and the dark humor of their associations, produce so disturbing an effect on the spectator, wrote an important manifesto, Au-dela de la peinture (1937), many poetic texts, either alone or in collaboration, mainly with Paul Eluard,I and published several series of collages dubbed novels. Surrealists frequently and eagerly crossed the barriers between art and literature, some by the creation of pocmesobjets or collages, others by texts illustrating plates or plates illustrating texts. Still others, the most famous being Jean Arp and Picabia, practiced throughout their career both visual and literary arts. Chirico's Hebdomeros (1929),2 which is entirely verbal, and Ernst's Une Semaine de bonti (1934),3 which is almost purely graphic, show, if not more clearly, at least in sharper relief than most other contemporary works, surrealist methods in interrelating the arts. When Chirico settled in Paris, he had already painted his most famous canvases and defined his art as metaphysical. However, his articles in Valori plastici and II convegno view painting in a historical and rather conventional perspective.4 Only in Zeusi l'esploratore5 has Chirico