From: The Museum of Modern Art
Limited Edition: 9
Exhibition: The Museum of Modern Art Grand Reopening
Material: Printed vinyl
Dimensions: 35" x 96" (88cm x 243cm)

Hanging Hardware Included

Summary

Giorgio de Chirico created estranged urban worlds filled with unrelated objects. His enigmatic works greatly inspired the surrealists that followed him. In 1918, frustrated by rejection from the avant-garde art world he shifted gears, shunning modernity and working in a more classical vein. It is his earlier works, created before 1918, that most define his work. From Museum of Modern Art's grand reopening in New York come 9 banners featuring de Chirico's "The Song of Love" from 1914.

Description

The artist's Metaphysical Paintings, as he called them, delved into the world of dreams and fantasy, and he plumbed these seeking a sense of meaning. His work reached its pinnacle between about 1909 and 1919 with these disturbingly fascinating images, one of which, Song of Love from 1914, is featured on these banners. The surreal cityscape of unrelated objects - a glove, a classical bust, a smoke-spewing factory, a green ball - is rendered in a simple vocabulary of lines and volumes and exemplifies his most successful Metaphysical work. The feeling is one of solidity and simplicity juxtaposed with underlying unease and complexity.

In 1918, frustrated by rejection from the avant-garde art world, and perhaps embarrassed to have put his personal fantasy world on display, he shifted gears, shunning modernity and working in a classical vein. Critics and collectors were not impressed by this shift, and pre-1918 de Chiricos regularly fetched 30 times the price of later works even during his own lifetime. This infuriated de Chirico, and he secretly continued painting backdated copies in his earlier style for commercial gain. Italian art dealers at the time joked that de Chirico's bed must be six feet off the ground, to hold all the early work he kept "discovering" under it.

Both sides of this banner are identical.. Above the image is a deep red band with the museum's initials "MoMA" in white text. Below the image is another deep red band with additional white text that reads "The Museum of Modern Art/reopens November 20, 2004". The logo and name of the sponsor "JP MorganChase" is included at the bottom of the banner. The entire banner is framed by a white border.

Provenance

These banners were displayed around Manhattan to promote The Museum of Modern Art's grand reopening in New York City in 2004. The museum's expansion was designed by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi who was selected after an extensive search, and whose design doubled the museum's size to 630,000 square feet. Other banners promoting the reopening feature a stainless steel ball-bearing by Swedish designer Sven Wingquist, and Cezanne's The Bather.

About the Artist 

Learn more about Giorgio de Chirico