Alberto Giacometti

10 October 1901 11 January 1966 (aged 64)

Switzerland

Alberto Giacometti grew up in

Switzerland in the Val
Bregaglia alpine valley, a few
kilometers from the SwissItalian border.

His father,Giovanni
Giacometti(1868-1933) was
an impressionist painter
esteemed by Swiss collectors
and artists. He shared his
thoughts with his son on art
and the nature of art.

First works

Alberto Giacometti produced his first oil

painting (Still Life with Apples, circa 1915)
and first sculpted bust (Diego, circa 19141915) in his father's studio at the age of
fourteen.

In 1922, Giacometti went to Paris to study,

enrolling in the Acadmie de la GrandeChaumire, where he attended classes given
by the sculptorAntoine Bourdelle..

Self portrait, 1917

screaming or war figures

Father`s studio

All of their family members sat to Giovanni and Alberto for

portraits. Alongside his father, Albertos younger brother
of
Large
Head important
of
Head Diego
of Bruno
1917 was
(1902-1985)
especially
inHead
this regard.
Ottilia
1925
Mother
1918
He was not only Albertos
favorite
model but would
become
his closest collaborator for many years. After Albertos death,
Diego made a name for himself as a designer of bronze
furniture and sculptures that were clearly influenced by his
elder brother.

The encounter with the arts of africa and

oceania

Giacomettis work shows the influence of African

and Oceanian sculpture. When the young artist
developed an interest in African art in 1926, it
was no longer a novelty for the modern artists of
the previous generation (Picasso, Derain); it had
even become popularized to the point of
becoming decorative. The two works which first
brought Giacometti to the attention of the public
were theSpoon WomanandThe Couple, both
shown in 1927 at the Salon des Tuileries in Paris,
and both illustrating the upheaval created in the
young artist by that cultural encounter. In 1928,
Giacometti embarked on a series of women and
flat heads, whose novel quality earned him
acclaim in 1929, and resulted in his first contract
with the Pierre Loeb gallery, which exhibited the
Surrealists.

Spoon Woman, 1927

The Couple, 1927Cubist Couple 1927

Woman flat 2,3,5 1928-1929

The shape of this work is an extension of the cubist-influenced sculptures in the shape of
plates with primitive and totemic influences that Giacometti was making in the years
1927-1928. While in the previous pieces the signs in relief made on the plates were very
marked, here the relief is very subtle, made of light hollows, fine incisions and delicate
curves. It is the light that animates the work, creating an ambiguity between the solid
and the hollow following trails that sculptors were exploring at the time.

Reclining Woman who Dreams 1929

It is the first of Giacomettis works to

be cast at the Rudier foundry. Like the
women in the shape of thin plates but
in a more complex fashion, this work
plays on hollows and solids, combined
with planes. The womans head in
the shape of a spoon rests on a
double flat wave that demarcates a
floating in-between pierced three
times, giving the piece a subtly erotic
character. The flat base like a tablet,
recurrent in Giacomettis pieces of
the time, makes it an object
impossible to classify, a hybrid
between sculpture and decorative
arts. In that feature one also
perceives the influence of primitive
art and particularly African sculptures.

The surrealist experiment

Giacometti joinedAndr Bretons Surrealist
movementin 1931, as an active member of
Bretons group, Giacometti in no time stood out
as one of its rare sculptors. Despite his being
expelled in February 1935, surrealist procedures
continued to play an important part in his
creative work: dreamlike visions, montage and
assemblage, objects with metaphorical
functions, and magical treatment of the figure.
TheGazing Head, caught the attention of the
group in 1929, and theWalking Womanof
1932, conceived as a model for the major
Surrealist exhibition of 1933, in the version with
neither arms nor head, featured in the 1936
Surrealist show in London.

The unity of time and space

Gazing Head 1929

A formative experience of the Giacometti children was

playing in the immediate vicinity of their fathers studio.
This special situation lastingly shaped Albertos art and his
relationship with his siblings. The playful aspect of the art
that surrounded him in Stampa and that would so
fascinatingly manifest itself in the kinetic objects of his
Surrealist period in the late 1920s and early 1930s, formed
the nucleus of an idea that would become central to
Albertos art: the unity of time and space. He realized that
a depiction of motion taking the viewers motions, too,
into account was linked just as much with the time period
in which the motion occurs as with the space it traverses.
In his involvement with the space-time theme, Albertos
relatives formed essential points of reference. He saw
himself as occupying the center of a system of people,
things, artworks, places, memories, and events to come.

Mobile and mute objects

The creation of decorative art objects shows Giacomettis

interest in utilitarian objects which he admired in ancient
and primitive societies. In 1931, Giacometti created a
new typology of sculptures, which he called mobile and
mute objects things moving in a latent, suggestive
way, which he had made of wood by a carpenter. Like
theDisagreeable Objectand theDisagreeable
Object To Be Thrown Away, theSuspended
Ballestablished a bridge between object and sculpture,
and challenged the actual status of the work of art. In
some of these sculptures, Giacometti had recourse, for
the first time, to the procedure of the cage, which
enabled him to delimit a dreamlike space of
representation. From 1930 on, Giacometti created many
utilitarian objects: lamps, vases, and wall lights which
were sold by the avant-garde interior decoratorJeanMichel Frank. He also designed plaster and terra cotta
bas-reliefs, fire places, chandeliers, and console tables.

Floor Lamp,
model with
cups 1934

Pair of wall sconce,

Left Fist Holding a
Bowl and Right Fist
Holding a Bowl
Model 1931

e Woman and a Rider in a Landscape, bas-relief 1932

Egyptian
Lamp 1933
Disagree
able
Object,
1931

Disagreea
ble
Object, To
Be
Thrown
Away,
1931

Suspended Ball, 1931

What is a head? The dimensions of

representation
The issue of the human head was
the central subject of Giacomettis
research throughout his life, as well
as the reason for his exclusion of the
Surrealist group in 1935. In that
year, the representation of a head,
which seemed to be a common-orgarden subject, was, for him, far
from being resolved. The head and,
above all, the eyes are the core of
the human being and of life, whose
mystery fascinated him. After
theHead-Skullof 1934, developed
after the death of his father Giovanni
in 1933, his many different

In the 1930s, the models for

his research into the head
were his brother, Diego, an
English artist friend,Isabel
(Delmer), and a professional
model,Rita (Gueyfier).
Glimpsed from afar in the
Quartier Latin, Isabel was the
subject of one his very
earliest miniature figurines.
After his return to Paris from
Switzerland in 1945,
Giacometti once again
showed that monumentality
was separate from size, by
making small-format portraits

Head of Diego 1934

Head of Diego (Mask)

Head of Diego 1936

Head of Colonel Rol-Tanguy 1946

mall Head of Marie-Laure de Noailles 1946

Simone de Beauvoir 1946

In 1939 for the Borns (the wealthy Argentinians) dining room, Alberto
Giacometti imagined and created two consoles in stone that formed a
pair, each crowned with an imposing bas-relief.
These monumental pieces, each weighing nearly a ton for a height
close to three metres, are composed of three distinct elements a
console, a cross-piece support and the bas-relief. Sculpted in one single
block of light-coloured stone, each of the consoles takes on the same
general structure: a thick base in a half-moon shape supporting three
large curved feet that hold up a three-cusped top. However, each
console remains unique, the feet adopting different curves.

A woman like a tree, a head like a stone

It was in Switzerland, where Giacometti

spent the Second World War, that he had the
idea in 1944-45 for the sculpture which
would be the prototype for his postwar
standing figures: theWoman with Chariot,
which depicts the image of his English friend
Isabel from memory. The sculpture of a
standing figure, facing forward with her arms
beside her body and her face expressionless,
is a fine example of Giacomettis research
between 1945 and 1965 involving the space
of representation: the figures were either set
on pedestals which isolated them from the
ground, or incorporated in cages forming a
virtual space.

Some compositions likeThe Gladewere placed on flat surfaces

raised above pedestal level here, too, it was a matter of
establishing a space parallel to ours. The standing female figures
are allusive silhouettes, sometimes reduced to a line, and
invariably approached by way of successive phases conveyed by
series.

TheFour Women on a BaseandFour Figurines on a

Standmaterialize two visions involving four standing women seen
from a distance, and in different circumstances.
The Forest, 1950

With theThree Men

WalkingGiacometti tried
to grasp in sculpture the
fleeting sight of figures in
motion. In 1950,
Giacometti produced a
series of sculptures
conveying the image of a
clearing where the trees
were women and the
stones mens heads an
image which he would
later push to its extreme,
in a life-size piece.

The
Giacomettis work
studies thepart as an
evocation of the
whole, and
theemergence of a
visionin the
spectators space. In
1921 and 1946,
Giacometti witnessed
two deaths which left
him with an indelible
memory. At the
bedside of the first
dying person he was
fascinated by his nose
which seemed to him
to grow longer as life
ebbed away. In front of

Nose

The

Nose

Pursued by visions of
heads suspended in the
void, he strove to
convey them in
sculpture. He had been
fascinated since
boyhood by the human
gaze, and the
impression that life lies
in the eyes was now
heightened. Talking
about those years, he
declared:
I cannot
simultaneously see the
eyes,
hands,
Head
on athe
Rod
1947 and
the feet of a person
standing two or three

The hand 1947

Giacometti'sLhomme au
doigt (Pointing man) 1947 ,
which has been sold for$141.3
million,a world record for a
sculpture.
Giacometti now appears three
times in the top ten list of the
most expensive piece of art ever
sold.
#3 in the list of Most
expensive works of art ever.
(May 2015)

Three
Men
Walking
[Large
Square]
1948
The square 1948

Man Walking
quickly
under the
Rain 1948

Between 1951 and

his death,
Giacometti
produced a series
ofdark heads,
which, together
with some
anonymous
sculpted heads,
lent substance to
the generic man
concept, which
Sartre would sum
up, in 1964, in his
novel Les mots,
with the
sentence:A whole
man, made of all

A bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti

called Chariot (1950), which was sold in
2014 for $101 million atSothbi`s
impressionist and modern art sale. The
piece was one of only six made and one
of only two in private hands. (9)

Figure between 2 houses 1950

The Cage, first version 1950 The Cage 1951

Falling Man 1951

Tall Woman 1,
1960
Bronze, 272 x
34,9 x 54 cm

Large Head,
1960
Bronze, 95 x 26
x 35 cm

In December 1958, through his New

York dealerPierre Matisse,
Giacometti was invited to submit a
project for a monument to be
installed in the square being built in
front of the newChase Manhattan
Bankskyscraper in Manhattan. In
February 1959, the architect of this
urban complex, Gordon Bunshaft,
sent him the dimensions for making
a model of the square, designed to
help Giacometti to imagine the
space, because the artist had never
set foot in the United States.
Giacometti decided to use, on a
grand scale, the three motifs which
had haunted his oeuvre since 1948:
a gigantic standing female figure, a
large walking man, and a
monumental head set on the
ground, all arranged in relation to
each other. With this monument, for
the first time, he permitted

Animals
The
dog,
The
dog,
The
Horse,
The cat
1951

Man with Windbreaker 1953

Standing Nude 2, 1953

Annette standing 1954

Grande Tte Mince (Tall thin

head)
1954
It is also known as Grande tte de
Diego and is described as arobust
personification of the Existentialist
movement during the heated years
of the Cold War. Of all visually
his
engaging
representations of theandemotionally
human figure,
this sculpture is without
questionIt
impactful.
Giacomettis most formallyradical,
appears to part
lips as if about
tospeak and only
those with deep
understanding for
art are
empowered to

Seated Woman 1956

Women of Venice
Giacometti worked with
a single batch of clay,
shaping, reshaping,
crafting, and then he'd
stop and ask his brother
to make a mold of what
he had. Once the mold
was made, he would
jump back into it and
start shaping and
reshaping and crafting
that same piece of clay
again until he'd gotten
something else that
seemed... interesting?
worthwhile?

Woman of Venice 4, 1956

Bust of Man 1956

Standing woman 1956

The Leg 1958

In February
Walking Man 1, 1960
of 2010

Bronze, 180,5 x 27 x 97 cm Alberto

Giacometti's
1960
sculpture of
a spindly
man,
"Walking
Man 1," sold
for $104.3
million in a
Sotheby's
auction,
shattering
the record
price for a
work of art
at auction.
The price
breaks the

Portraits
Giacomettis portraits, be
they painted or sculpted,
are the translation of the
model as an implacable
otherness, which can never
be grasped in its entirety.
These portraits, devoid of
all emotion and expression,
are the receptacle of what
the spectator brings to
them. What was involved
for the artist was capturing
and rendering the vibration

Bust of
Diego, 1964
Bust of Annette,
1962

The last model

Eli Lotar, a film-maker and photographer, was Giacomettis
last male model. Lotar, a had been part of the Surrealist
avant-garde in the 1930s. In the postwar years, he was
dogged by failure and became destitute; he lived off the
generosity of old friends like Giacometti, who gave him money
in exchange for running small errands and posing.Giorgio
Soavihas described these sessions, where Lotar had to
remain absolutely still, as follows:[Giacomettis] eye was
filled with strange gleams, his body vibrated in every limb, all
he followed were the impulses which governed his hands, his
arms, and his legs: he was in ecstasy. As I looked closely at
the two faces, I understood the secret which enabled Lotar not
to breathe: if Eli was the ideal model for that sculpture, it was
because he was dead. He didnt breathe, he didnt think, he
remained focused on the highest point. An electric current

Head of a Man (Lotar 1),

circa 1964-1965

Bust of a Man Seated

(Lotar 3), 1965

Fame

Public fame took up a

great amount of
Giacomettis time in the
last years of his life where
collectors, dealers, young
artists, curators and the
media flocked to his
studio. He received the
Sculpture Prize at the
1961Carnegie
Internationalin Pittsburgh
and the Grand Prize for
Sculpture at the 1962
VeniceBiennale. In 1965,
exhibitions were held at
the Tate Gallery, London,

Giacometti died in 1966 of heart

disease (pericarditis)
andchronic bronchitisat the
Kantonsspital inChur,
Switzerland. His body was
returned to his birthplace in
Borgonovo, where he was
interred close to his parents.

Interesting facts
TheFondation Alberto et Annette
Giacometti, having received a bequest
from Alberto Giacometti's widow Annette,
holds a collection of circa 5,000 works,
frequently displayed around the world
through exhibitions and long-term loans. A
public interest institution, the Foundation
was created in 2003 and aims at
promoting, disseminating, preserving and
protecting Alberto Giacometti's work.
TheAlberto GiacomettiStiftungestablished in Zrich in 1965,
holds a smaller collection of works
acquired from the collection of the

Be inspired. Thank you for

listening.