The de Chirico Brothers

 

May 16, 2017

Join us for an in-depth look at the de Chirico brothers, Giorgio de Chirico and his younger brother, Alberto Savinio—one the subject of this season’s exhibition at CIMA and the other the subject of CIMA’s next exhibition season (2017-18), opening in October 2017. Former CIMA 2015-16 Fellow Nicol Mocchi joins us to discuss her new book, La cultura dei fratelli de Chirico agli albori dell’arte metafisica. Milano e Firenze 1909-1911 (Milan, Archivio dell’Arte Metafisica, 2017) (The Culture of the de Chirico Brothers at the Dawn of Metaphysical Painting). She will be in conversation with current CIMA Fellow Sophia Maxine Farmer.

Mocchi’s book guides us through the cultural explorations undertaken by the de Chirico brothers during the most important phase of their artistic collaboration, the period around the creation of Metaphysical Painting. Based on a systematic study of the books borrowed or consulted by the de Chirico brothers in the libraries of Milan and Florence between 1909 and 1911, this book allows us to deepen our understanding not only of the artistic production of these two artists, but also of their musical and literary activities.

Nicol Maria Mocchi is an Italian art historian specialized in 19th- and 20th-century art, dealing specifically with the relationships and exchanges between different visual cultures. Since 2010, she has collaborated with the Archivio dell’Arte Metafisica and with Milan’s Superintendency for Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape. In 2016, she was a Fellow at the Center for Italian Modern Art working on the reception, visual success, and critical fortunes of Giorgio Morandi’s œuvre in the United States, leading up to the 1940s.