CHIRICO Giorgio de (1888-1978)
12 autograph signed... Lot 247
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CHIRICO Giorgio de (1888-1978)
12 autograph signed letters addressed to Julien LÉVY Paris, January 26, 1934; Rome, December 2, 1948, set of 19 pages in-4 and in-12 in ink.
Magnificent correspondence evoking the reciprocal hostility between de Chirico and the Surrealists.
In 1933, Chirico wanted to organize an exhibition of his recent works in New York and chose Julien Lévy's gallery. Lévy criticized him for repeating himself: "I don't quite understand what you mean about my paintings when you talk about repetition and too many horses. My production is very varied and in America dealers have sold a bit of everything: I have done many paintings of horses [...] but besides that, I have done many other subjects: gladiators, chariot races, mannequins, ruins and landscapes in the rooms, furniture in the valleys, etc.".
There are few painters who have had as varied a production as I have," wrote Chirico in January 1934.
An astonishing letter reveals Chirico's animosity towards the
Surrealists: "The origin of this hostility stems from the fact that their two leaders, Breton and Eluard, had immediately after the war managed to collect for very little money and sometimes even for nothing, a number of paintings of me painted before and during the war....They were hoping for a coup in the genre of Douanier Rousseau; they started talking about me in their magazine, describing me as a sort of hallucinated person who painted a few canvases that only they own.......] Their range is very limited and they are always losing ground because people are getting tired of their stories and everyone understands that they are a bunch of lazy and untalented individuals who try to draw attention to themselves through small scandals and intrigues" (letter of November 10, 1934).
He thus postponed his exhibition at Julien Lévy's so as not to exhibit at the same time as Dalí, "the painter they support the most at the moment [...] I am sure that Dali and his wife will try to speak badly of me in New Y
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