Sunday, September 27, 10:15 – 11am
Giorgio de Chirico. The Rose Tower (detail), 1913. The Barnes Foundation, BF597. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
Free; registration required.
About the Talk
Each month, members of our education, research, and curatorial teams present their ongoing research on the collection to members. These talks are a great way to learn more about your favorite artists.
Greek-Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) is well known today for the enigmatic and disorienting landscapes he painted over a century ago at the beginning of his career. His askew piazzas, soaring arcades, and lonely statues represent a poetic and mystic vision of a dawning world, which would mature into what de Chirico would term metaphysical art. This style of painting sought to uncover the secondary aspect of reality embedded within all things and was inspired by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This philosophy, coupled with de Chirico’s itinerant upbringing across the Mediterranean, coalesced into a body of work that caught the eye of Dr. Albert C. Barnes early in his collecting career.
This talk will begin at the entrance to the Collection Gallery and take place in Room 23.
Go Further
Members-Only Online Tour: Firestorm! Outrage! Dr. Barnes’s Scandalous 1923 Philadelphia Exhibition
Philadelphia critics once panned Dr. Barnes’s collection. Discover the press feud and learn which works remain in the collection today.
Member Previews: Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America
Members are invited to view our newest exhibition before it opens to the public on Sunday, September 20.
Member Introduction: Sky Hopinka: Red Metal Dust
Learn more about Red Metal Dust, a site-specific installation that explores and interrogates the American experience and its histories.