Giorgio Morandi and Giorgio de Chirico once again confirm themselves as the main protagonists of Italian art in the International scene, as the recent exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of New York and at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris prove. Today the two undisputed representatives of the twentieth century in our country are exhibited together in a unique and interesting show curated by Franco and Roberta Calarota able to stimulate new reflections on their work and bring out unknown aspects of their art making. Within the walls of Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. an original dialogue between the poetic and evocative atmospheres takes place, where the Master from Bologna's refined language, perfect instrument to express his extraordinary lyrical essentiality, meets the strong and suggestive strenght emerging from the canvas of the Metaphysical painter.
Despite the fact that over time Giorgio Morandi and Giorgio de Chirico have developed a completely personal and original language, a special link is noticeable between the poetics and sensibilities of the two artists. After their meeting in 1919 and Morandi's participation in the so-called "metaphysical school", the paths of the two artists come apart. Yet, the comparison between the impalpability and the suspension of the forms of Morandi's still lives, flowers and landscapes and De Chirico's enigmatic nature of his metaphysical interiors and squares remains intriguing, or perhaps even more so, balancing between suspension in time and space where Morandi's renowned bottles are immersed and De Chirico's ambiguous and still scenarios, where his well-known mannequins stand.
In other words, the most suggestive comparison is between their two different and completely personal ways of internalizing the external world. While works with different subjects and techniques alternate on the walls of Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m., the external reality presented in each work is an excuse to offer an inner vision of what surrounds us.
Both our two artists offer a different access key to this more intimate and private dimension: Morandi plays with everyday and domestic objects, with recognizable scenarios immersed in vibrant lights, made with essential shapes and with those so recognizable shades of color; De Chirico, instead, ventures into another world, populated by bizarre characters that, even if familiar, are however alienating because they are located in a not usual space or time. While, the former expresses himself through calm and orderly visions, the latter makes more uncertain and disturbing atmospheres his own.
Overall, the exhibition therefore proves to be an important opportunity for a direct dialogue between two of the major artists who have left a permanent mark on twentieth century art history. In the recent years there has also been a strong international interest to deepen knowledge about them, as evidenced by Morandi's recent exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and by De Chirico's at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
The Gallery layout of Morandi's selected works focuses on the compositional style preferred by the artist and on his choices of light and intensity of the sign, while for De Chirico's works we intend to give visibility to the different stages of his production by exhibiting works from 1928 to the Sixties.
