Giorgio De Chirico and America

Rating:
Summary: this book could have been better
Review: De Chirico is commonly seen as the first surrealist. He is also the creator of the most profound paintings ever. But Baldacci engages for too long in horse manure "painting analysis"; when the whole point of de Chirico's paintings is that they can't be analyzed with words. If Baldacci wanted to comment on de Chricio, he should have been a painter himself. Describing de Chirico's paintings with words is both ineffective and unsatisfying. Also, Baldacci talks a lot about Nietzsche and other philosophers whom de Chirico liked. While his comments are usually in the spirit of Nietzsche's philosophy and reflect many of de Chirico's own beliefs, I suggest you yourself read Nietzsche or Walter Kaufmann's commentary on Nietzsche ("Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist") because Baldacci is at times off, and in any case you will get an incomplete picture of Nietzsche if you just read this book. De Chirico's life is a tragic reminder of a revolution in human approach to the world that could have thrived after Nietzsche fortold its coming; instead, it was extinguished, and only some of Nietzsche's other prophecies, WWI, II, and the Holocaust, became true.

Rating:
Summary: this book could have been better
Review: De Chirico is commonly seen as the first surrealist. He is also the creator of the most profound paintings ever. But Baldacci engages for too long in horse manure "painting analysis"; when the whole point of de Chirico's paintings is that they can't be analyzed with words. If Baldacci wanted to comment on de Chricio, he should have been a painter himself. Describing de Chirico's paintings with words is both ineffective and unsatisfying. Also, Baldacci talks a lot about Nietzsche and other philosophers whom de Chirico liked. While his comments are usually in the spirit of Nietzsche's philosophy and reflect many of de Chirico's own beliefs, I suggest you yourself read Nietzsche or Walter Kaufmann's commentary on Nietzsche ("Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist") because Baldacci is at times off, and in any case you will get an incomplete picture of Nietzsche if you just read this book. De Chirico's life is a tragic reminder of a revolution in human approach to the world that could have thrived after Nietzsche fortold its coming; instead, it was extinguished, and only some of Nietzsche's other prophecies, WWI, II, and the Holocaust, became true.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully produced catalog with provocative articles
Review: This is a catalogue of a very small show (seen only at the Hunter College, NY, art gallery in fall 1996) which focused on De Chirico's brief time in America and the artistic use he made of it. But the catalogue's text extends well beyond this narrow subject into a full-scale re-evaluation of this much-misunderstood (and frequently reviled) genius of Metaphysical Art. (Fagiolo dell'Arco, by the way, is responsible only for a single article. The catalogue was edited by Emily Braun, and both the catalogue and exhibit were under her guidance, with the help of her students in Art History.) A very fine addition to the De Chirico literature.