Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), the greatest Italian painter of our time, is also one of the most elusive figures of modern art. Recognized as a forerunner of several important twentieth-century movements - most notably Surrealism - he suddenly, not halfway through his long career, turned his back on his years of modernist experimentation and returned to classicism.

But in 1920, after years of experimentation, de Chirico abandoned his metaphysical work and returned to a conservative, academic style. This illustrated survey, with more than sixty full color reproductions of his most important paintings, re-examines the work of this visionary artist.