The Art of Enigma: The de Chirico Brothers and the Politics of Modernism (New Modernisms Series)
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism
The Art of Enigma: The de Chirico Brothers and the Politics of Modernism (New Modernisms Series) Details
Review “In this fine book, Keala Jewell studies the works of Giorgio de Chirico and his younger brother Alberto Savinio who together produced an oeuvre shrouded in ‘the motif of secrecy.’ The Art of Enigma, an authentically interdisciplinary book, is the first study that considers the brothers together and addresses the important task of defining and characterizing the Metaphysical art that the brothers developed, especially as it differs from Surrealism, and establishes itself as an Italian, rather than a French, art.”—Karen Pinkus, University of California, Los Angeles“By turning her focus away from the familiar Metaphysical canvases of de Chirico’s work of the 1910s, Keala Jewell finds new and exciting relationships between the art and politics of the 1920s and 1930s. As such, this book makes a significant contribution to the field. The Art of Enigma has all the markings of a landmark study in the field.”—Michael R. Taylor, The Philadelphia Museum of Art“It must be said that Jewell, a prominent scholar in the field of Italian literature, measures up unflinchingly and with penetrating subtlety, so that, although her attention concentrates on the literary output of the two brothers, this in no way diminishes the value of its contribution to a fuller understanding of their painting.”—Robert Radford, The Art Book“What would it mean to look at de Chirico differently? . . . Keala Jewell’s new book The Art of Enigma: The De Chirico Brothers and the Politics of Modernism provides the answer to this question by examining the work of the de Chirico brothers, Giorgio and Alberto (later know as Alberto Savinio) together. . . . What emerges is a new picture of the de Chiricos that refuses easy definitions and is salutary for its protean spirit of inclusiveness and heterogeneity.”—Anthony White, Papers of Surrealism Read more About the Author Keala Jewell is Paganucci Chair of Italian Studies at Dartmouth College. She is the author of The Poesis of History: Experimentation with Genre in Postwar Italy (1992), editor of Monsters in the Italian Literary Imagination (2001) and co-editor of The Defiant Muse (1985). Read more
Reviews
Very thoughtful and well informed study of Giorgio and Andrea de Chirico. I was particularly pleased to find both of them treated together
