GIORGIO DE CHIRICO
Waldemar George
Waldemar George: GIORGIO DE CHIRICO [Chirico avec des Fragments Litteraires de l'Artiste]. Paris: Editions des Chroniques du jour, 1928. First edition [560 copies total edition]. Quarto. Printed thick wrappers under Publishers fitted glassine. 30 finely printed plates. Five full-page text portraits. Former owner single-word inkstamp inside front cover. “CHERICO” inked to glassine spine. Glassine chipped to spine with several snags. Spine heel chipped, spine crown less so, otherwise a very good or better copy in a good example of the Publishers unprinted glassine.
9 x 11.25 softcover book with 30 finely printed plates surveying de Chirico’s work through 1928. A brilliant, important, and relatively early monograph. Published in an edition of 560 copies, with the first 60 copies sanctified via an original etching; this example not numbered, despite the presence of an exemplaire number spot in the colophon.
The publishing house Editions des Chroniques du Jour in Paris [6e] distinguished themselves as one of the premiere French Art Publishers of the 20th century with their stewardship of Verve and XXe Siècle as well as monographs on various Modern Artists. When we say finely printed plates, we mean finely printed plates.
Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) was an Italian painter, sculptor, theatrical designer and writer born at Volo in Greece, of Italian parents. Studied drawing and painting at the Athens Polytechnic 1903–6 and for eighteen months at the Munich Academy, where he discovered the work of Böcklin. Moved to Italy in 1908. In Paris 1911–15 met Apollinaire, Picasso and others, and painted a highly influential group of paintings evoking dream-like architectural visions of Italy. Further developed this style, known as Metaphysical painting, at Ferrara 1915–18. Began in 1918 in Rome to make a close study of the paintings and techniques of the Old Masters. First one-man exhibition at the Casa d'Arte Bragaglia, Rome, 1919. Again from 1925–31 in Paris where the Surrealists, who admired his early paintings, attacked him for his adoption of a more traditional style (portraits, still lifes, horses by the sea, etc.). Spent the 1930s partly in Italy, partly in Paris and New York, then settled in 1943 in Rome. Designed sets and costumes for various ballets and operas, and made a number of small sculptures, mainly from 1968 onwards; his writings included a poetic novel Hebdomeros 1929 and an autobiography Memorie della mia Vita 1945. Died in Rome. [Tate Artist Biography]
Waldemar George (1874–1970) was born George Jascinski in Lodz, then immigrated first to Odessa and later to Paris. In 1928, Waldemar George wrote enthusiastically about de Chirico in a monograph for l’Effort Moderne. In the essay Appels d’Italie, published by the critic in the catalog of the XVII Biennale d’Arte of Venice [1930], he also confirmed an ideal concept of Italianism as a vision of the world and life: “[. . .] Italy represents a vision of the world and life. This vision is worldwide and super-national and has twice conquered the Universe [. . .] we care little if the masters of art are Italian-born or not (some of them are . . .). We try above all to show the primacy and supremacy of Italianism considered as a cosmogony, a style, a manner, an order.”