Alberto Giacometti
Born – Stampa, Grisons, Swtizerland 1901
Died - Chur, Switzerland 1966
Alberto Giacometti trained as an artist in Geneva and settled in Paris in 1922. Although he is primarily associated with the Existentialist philosophies of Jean-Paul Sarte, he was also significantly involved with contemporary avant-garde art developments in Paris. His initial interest in Cubism and primitive sculpture gave way in the early 1930s to a more active participation with the Surrealists headed by André Breton. Giacometti’s jointed sculpture of this time, Woman with her Throat Cut, is in striking contrast to the later work for which he is best known. Its content, however, offers some indication of the artist’s tendency to morbidity. His expulsion from the Surrealist movement in 1935 was a result of a dramatic change of direction. When Giacometti exhibited again, in 1948, his sculpture consisted largely of skeletal figures, excessively tall or extremely small. Each the width of the passage of a prolonged gaze, these spectres seems to be willing themselves not to exist. Giacometti’s painting represents an equally powerful striving to sculpt a physical presence, in the knowledge that reproducing the essence of humanity with paint is impossible. It is appropriate that the subject of this passionately wrought portrait is writer Jean Genet, Sartré’s protégé.
Masterpieces:
- Femme De Venis IX
- Portrait of Yanaihara
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.