Alberto Savinio

Born in 1891 in Atene, Greece; dies in 1952 in Rome, Italy.
Savinio is the brother of Giorgio de Chirico and the son of the rail engineer Evaristo de Chirico, who lived and worked in Greece at the time. He studies piano and composition at the Conservatory of Athens and graduates in 1903. After his father’s death, in 1905, he moves with his family to Munich and, in 1911, to Paris where he meets Pablo Picasso, Blaise Cendrars, Francis Picabia, Jaen Cocteau, Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire. In 1914, using for the first time the pseudonym of Alberto Savinio, he publishes Les Chants de la mi – mort for the magazine Les Soirées de Paris. He joins the Italian army during World War I, in 1915, and in 1917, at the time of his collaboration with the Zurich magazine Dada, he is sent to Thessaloniki. After the war, he founds together with his brother, Carra, De Pisis, Soffici, Mario Broglio and others, the magazine Plastic Values. From 1919 to 1920 he writes the autobiographical novel Childhood Tragedy, published in 1937. During his time he writes another novel, The inspired house. In 1934, he settles in Rome and he works as a journalist for the Italian newspaper La Stampa and magazines such as La Ronda, Colonna and Il Bolletto, Receiving the Prix Saint Vincent for journalism in 1949. During the 1940s besides his publications, he also becomes an established painter. In 1946, he, collaborates with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, creating in 1952 the set design and costumes for the famous Rossini’s Armida, with Maria Callas.