This book looks at a refined selection of drawings by Alberto Giacometti and examines them against the background provided by more than one hundred letters exchanged between Giacometti and his parents, the majority of which have not previously been published. The choice of drawings and the selected correspondence illuminate important aspects of the development of Giacometti's work over five decades of his life. Furthermore, Patrick de Vries examines Alberto Giacometti's friendships with important contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso, Francis Gruber, Balthus, and Tal-Coat, and discloses the artists' views of each other, as well as links and dissimilarities in their work. Discussions with Giacometti's friend, the Japanese philosopher Isaku Yanaihara, reveal interesting insights into the, rarely discussed, subject of Giacometti's fascination with East Asian Art.
A comprehensive survey of the work of the legendary Swiss artist, this book illustrates and examines more than 100 of his sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints This lavishly illustrated retrospective traces the early and midcareer development of the preeminent Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), examining the emergence of his distinct figural style through works including a series of walking men, elongated standing women, and numerous busts. Rare paintings and drawings from his formative period show the significance of landscape in Giacometti's work, while also revealing the influence of the postimpressionist painters that surrounded his father, the artist Giovanni Giacometti. Other areas of inquiry on which Alberto Giacometti casts new light are his studio practice--amply illustrated with photographs--his obsessive focus on depicting the human head, his collaborations with poets and writers, and his development of the walking man sculpture, thanks to numerous drawings, many of which have never been shown. Original essays by modern art and Giacometti specialists shed new light on era-defining sculptural masterpieces, including the Walking Man, the Nose, and the Chariot, or on key aspects of his work, such as the significance of surrealism, his drawing practice, or the question of space.
Alberto Giacometti forged a singular path within European Modernism, restlessly seeking a new language for sculpture as the double of reality. His quest brought him into close, face-to-face contact with some of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century--including Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, and Samuel Beckett. Tracing how these literary friendships molded the artist's creative development, Alberto Giacometti: Face to Face discovers new continuities among the various strains of modernist thought and develops a fresh approach to Giacometti and his work. This accessible overview of Giacometti's career is illustrated by more than 150 reproductions of his sculptures and paintings as well as excerpts from the literature that shaped his ideas, tracking the evolution of his work from post-cubism through surrealism and into post-war realism.
"Space does not exist," the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) wrote in 1949. "It has to be created... Every sculpture made on the assumption that space exists is wrong, there is only the illusion of space." This fascinating statement serves as a conceptual underpinning for Hatje Cantz's new appraisal of the artist's mature work. Giacometti's emaciated sculptures have long been seen as symbols of a newly anxious, frail humanity. But more recently, attention has come to focus on the relevance of his work for contemporary considerations of space and time. Alberto Giacometti: The Origin of Space supplies a comprehensive overview of the later works of this lastingly influential artist, presenting 200 color images of sculptures, paintings and drawings.
SCULPTURE. Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was the son of the Swiss painter Giovanni Giacometti. Born and raised in Val Bregaglia, after 1922 he lived primarily inParis following studies in Geneva and Rome . He created a stir among the Surrealists in the thirties, and was active as a lamp and vase designer. He developed his noted late work, extremely thin bronze figures symbolic of human existence, during and after World War II. This volume from the series Art to Read is an outstanding introduction to the life and work of this important and simultaneously puzzling artist, one who decisively influenced our understanding of sculpture in space.
"Part of the Tate Introductions series, this richly illustrated and accessible book provides an engaging and concise account of Giacometti's work and life. It explores the story of the artist's evolution, from his first sketchbooks and professional works of art through his extraordinary Surrealist compositions, to the emergence of his mature style." --Publisher's decsription.
When we look at a painting hanging on an art gallery wall, we see only what the artist has chosen to disclose--the finished work of art. What remains mysterious is the process of creation itself--the making of the work of art. Everyone who has looked at paintings has wondered about this, and numerous efforts have been made to discover and depict the creative method of important artists. A Giacometti Portrait is a picture of one of the century's greatest artists at work. James Lord sat for eighteen days while his friend Alberto Giamcometti did his portrait in oil. The artist painted, and the model recorded the sittings and took photographs of the work in its various stages. What emerged was an illumination of what it is to be an artist and what it was to be Giacometti--a portrait in prose of the man and his art. A work of great literary distinction, A Giacometti Portrait is, above all, a subtle and important evocation of a great artist.