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Alberto Giacometti
Art genre: Cubism, Surrealism and Existentialism.
Art media: Painting, sculpture and printmaking.
Life: Born in Switzerland in 1901, the son of renowned Post-Impressionist Giovanni Giacometti. Moved to Paris in 1922 and joined the Surrealist Group. Started painting using models which made him unpopular with this Group and they ‘excommunicated him'. In 1941, he met the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir who were key movers in the Existentialist movement. As the Second World War progressed, he returned to Geneva, Switzerland, where he supported himself by making furniture and interior decoration work. He married Annette Arm and returned to Paris after the War ended. His reputation as a sculptor grew and achieved worldwide celebrity in 1962 when he won a major prize for sculpture at the Venice Bienniale. His health began to fail in the 1960s and he died in Switzerland in 1966.
Work: Giacometti studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Geneva, and in 1922 went to Paris to study under the sculptor Bourdelle. He set up a studio with his brother Diego in 1925 and held his first one-man exhibition in Zurich in 1927. His primitive sculptures sold quickly and he was signed up by the influential Surrealist dealer Pierre Loeb. Between 1935 and 1940 he returned to working from models and sculpting portrait busts. His style changed and his sculptures became very small. It was only when he returned to Paris after the War that he made sculptures of normal dimensions - though the figures were long, thin and stretched out. He compulsively reworked his figures and often destroyed work that didn't match his vision. His work was exhibited in New York in 1948, Basle in 1950 and Paris in 1951. In 1956 he began producing portraits that were recognisable likenesses of their subjects. His sculptures are now extremely valuable - one fetched $14 million.
Find out more:
www.en.wikipedia.org
www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/giacometti (good visuals)
