Lorenzo Canova on Lucio Del Pezzo's Neometaphysical Dialogue with de Chirico

Lorenzo Canova examines Lucio Del Pezzo's (1933-2020) artistic debt to Giorgio de Chirico, positioning the Neapolitan artist within a 'neometaphysical' pole of Italian art identified by Maurizio Calvesi in 1963. Del Pezzo transformed de Chirico's two-dimensional enigmas into three-dimensional objects—colored sticks, balls, triangles, and geometric solids—extracted from de Chirico's Metaphysical works from Paris and Ferrara. Canova frames this as both a 'betrayal' (tradimento) and a transmission, citing Alberto Fiz's description of Del Pezzo's 'cleptomaniac gesture' that gives tactility to de Chirico's vision. The essay connects Del Pezzo to a generation including Concetto Pozzati, Tano Festa, and Franco Angeli, and to critics like Calvesi, Renato Barilli, and Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco. Canova references the 2019 exhibition 'Giorgio de Chirico. Ritorno al Futuro' at GAM Torino, curated by Canova and Riccardo Passoni. Del Pezzo's work also links de Chirico to design and architecture figures like Alessandro Mendini and Aldo Rossi, and to later artists Salvo, Luigi Ontani, and Francesco Vezzoli. The essay draws on de Chirico's writings, including 'Hebdomeros' and his concept of the 'metaphysical aesthetic', to argue that Del Pezzo's reassembly of broken toys and insignificant objects renews rather than destroys the metaphysical enigma.