From February 13 through May 24, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is turning a spotlight on the enigmatic art of the Italian Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico with a major retrospective, his first solo show in Paris in 25 years. "Giorgio de Chirico: La fabrique des rêves" retraces the artist’s 66-year career, from 1909 through 1975, with 170 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and archival material.

When de Chirico arrived in Paris, in 1911, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire inducted the young painter into the inner circle of such artists as Braque, Derain and Picasso. His metaphysical style of painting caused a sensation: The writer André Breton, one of the founders of Surrealism, credited de Chirico with challenging "the visual representation of man."

Highlights of this year’s retrospective include a suite of the artist’s architectural compositions, such as Piazza d’Italia, 1962, from a private collection. The desolate view of an Italian city square seems to capture a moment frozen in time — a lifeless scene populated only by starkly lit statues.

Also intriguing are two versions of his Muses inquiétantes: one, painted between 1924 and 1961, on loan from a private New York collection and the other, from an Italian private collection, a 1972 "replay" of the earlier example. Among the most poignant images is Retour d’Ulysse, 1968, lent by the Giorgio and Isa de Chirico Foundation in Rome. The picture, which depicts a Classical Greek sailor rowing across a sea bounded by the confines of a room, conveys the futility of action.

"Sheer Surrealism" originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's February 2009 Table of Contents.