Pittura Metafisica

Pittura Metafisica was founded in 1917 by Carlo Carrà (Italian, 1881-1966) and Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978), who met in Ferrara that year. They aimed to depict an alternative reality which engaged most immediately with the unconscious mind. In this style of painting, an illogical reality seemed credible. Using a sort of alternative logic, Carrà and de Chirico juxtaposed various ordinary subject -- typically including starkly rendered buildings, trains, and mannequins. The movement, as such, may be said to have dissolved by 1920 but its reverberations have continued, contributing to the more poetic aspects of Surrealism and the revival of classicism in the painting of Mario Sironi and others in the 1920s, and continuing to influence contemporary artists like Lisa Wray.

Giorgio de Chirico

The Double Dream of Spring

Italian painter, writer, theatre designer, sculptor and printmaker. De Chirico was one of the originators of Pittura Metafisica. His paintings are characterized by a visionary, poetic use of imagery, in which themes such as nostalgia, enigma and myth are explored. He was an important source of inspiration for artists throughout Europe in the inter-war years and again for a new generation of painters in the 1980s. His abrupt stylistic changes, however, have obscured the continuity of his approach, which was rooted in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and this has often led to controversy.

References:
http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=1106
http://the-artists.org/artistsbymovement/Metaphysical-Painting/