The Enigma of a Day (L’énigme d’une journée)

The large, olive-green wedge that drops from the upper left edge of Ocean Park #31 (1970; fig. 70) very quietly stirs a memory, eventually summoning up a grass-green wedge that rises at the left side of Henri Matisse’s Piano Lesson (1916; fig. 71). Then, looking around, we see...

Almost immediately after Italy entered World War One in May of 1915, Giorgio de Chirico and his brother, Alberto Savinio, departed Paris to serve in the 27th infantry regiment of the Italian army in Ferrara. Exchanging their international exploits for a national identity – a “proper passport,” as Giorgio later recalled – the brothers still advertised their...