Alberto Giacometti: biography and sculptures

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

He was a rare figure: among the most avant-garde artists of Paris, he made art without abstruse and deafening slogans, without shocking and declarations.

He is called one of the greatest sculptors of the 20th century, and Alberto Giacometti worked without noticing time, forgetting about sleep and food. He liked to repeat that he was only at the beginning of the path to understanding his model, that he did not have a single finished work …

Artist's son

He was almost the same age as the 20th century and was born in 1901 in the town of Stampe, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Alberto Giacometti was the son of a famous Post-Impressionist painter and grew up in an atmosphere of interest in fine art from childhood, and an interest that was free from the bounds of adherence to a particular trend or style. The artist carried this feeling through his whole life.

But first he copies his father's paintings and works in his manner and in the style of Fauvism. In sculpture, he began by working in an academic manner. After studying in the sculpture classof the Geneva School of Fine Arts, he travels through Italy, and then moves to France. Alberto Giacometti, whose biography began in Switzerland, worked almost all his life in a workshop in Montparnasse in Paris, leaving only for the summer to visit his relatives.

Choice of speci alty

Since 1922, he began studying with the sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), a student of the great Rodin, and intermittently studied with him for 5 years. Since 1925, drawing and painting have become secondary genres for Alberto Giacometti, and sculpture will henceforth be his main artistic speci alty.

Paris of the first decades of the 20th century is the center of the artistic life of the world. In the communication of young leaders of new trends in fine arts, literature, philosophy, new styles and ideas were honed, their interaction and mutual influence took place. Could not avoid this and Alberto Giacometti. The sculptures of that time bear clear traces of the formalistic research of Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and, of course, the Cubists. Such, for example, is "Torso" (1925).

Influence of primitive art

In search of the undistorted essence of what was depicted, the avant-gardists of the Parisian school paid attention to the art of peoples not spoiled by civilization. Exhibitions of ritual masks and totem idols from Africa, Oceania and South America, masterpieces of archaeological finds from the ancient Egyptian era - all this was studied with constant interest. Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani - artists of various trends used similar motifs in painting and sculpture.

“Couple”, “Spoon Woman” (1926) are some of the most expressive works of that period by Alberto Giacometti. The combination of a totem radical simplification of form, the expression of the male and female principles in the form of symbols, silhouettes is extremely concentrated here. The artist will use these finds in the future, but the unambiguously frontal arrangement (like these sculptures) is rare in Giacometti.

Variety of styles

Never locking himself into a single style, he easily changed his manner, especially at the beginning. Alberto Giacometti, whose biography is a constant and intense work, eventually developed his own special, unique and recognizable type of sculptural images - elongated, fragile figures with a pulsating surface, bewitching the space around them.

And in the beginning there were plates simplified to minimalism, in which the signs of the models were non-cardinal changes in the relief: “Head” (1931), “Weasel” (1932). There was a period when he was considered their undoubted supporter of the surrealists. “A Woman with a Cut Throat” (1932): a surprisingly strong impression of violence is achieved by dissecting volume on a plane, when individual biomorphic elements seem to be torn apart by a body that has undergone monstrous metamorphoses. "Surrealistic table" (1933) - a piece of furniture - a composition of elements that are self-sufficient in meaning, combined to create a new story.

FamousThe Suspended Ball (1931) is an amazing materialization of sensations, individual for each viewer: one dreams of erotic experiences, while the other feels a painful cut.

But the surreal period has become passing. The study of the diversity of life passing around at a given moment in time, and the person in this time became the main theme for the artist.

Time dictates topics

Switzerland is a neutral country, but no one managed to stay away from the global military tragedy. The days were still filled with work, but few large-scale and significant works were created. It is no coincidence that painting and drawing again began to occupy more space in the work of Alberto Giacometti. Sculptures literally decreased - human figures fit into a matchbox. Studying the interaction of volume and space, time and mass, the artist experiments with dimensions.

These studies formed the basis of the works that brought the master worldwide recognition immediately after the war. So, the most expensive sculpture by Alberto Giacometti "Pointing Man" was created in 1947. Cast in bronze, 180 cm high, this work of the master was sold in the spring of 2015 at Christie's for $141.285 million.

Recognition

The main place at the exhibitions of 1948 in New York and 1950 in Paris was given to sculpture, expressing the fragility and defenselessness of a person in a world of violence, the inability to resist the inexorable flow of time. Together with amazing drawings and paintings by Alberto Giacometti, the sculptures made up exhibitions thatconsistently enjoyed tremendous success.

The busts and figures that he constantly sculpted from his permanent models - brother Diego and wife Annette - do not have momentary materiality and real volume, they seem to be turned off from space, endowed with a meaning for which the present moment is not important.

Preserving the visual expression of the artist's energy in the form of a bubbling texture created by the sculptor's innumerable finger touches, they captivate with a force similar to the energy of a drawn bow. This almost literally symbolizes the same “Pointing Man” by Alberto Giacometti. A photo of this sculpture from a certain angle is an archer who will release an inexorable arrow in a second.

Expressionism in painting

Drawings and painting by Giacometti are not a preparatory stage for future large-scale works, although the sculptor's look is felt in them. A portrait or figure is modeled with many contours. Especially characteristic of Giacometti is the use of two lines of contrasting color. The drawing appears as an intricate grid structure with an almost three-dimensional effect, with every line precise and in place.

The paintings of Giacometti and his sculptures are related not only by the skillful use of volume, not only by the characteristic elongation of the depicted figures and faces, but also by that unprecedented energy, those emotions that radiate every dent on the surface of the sculpture, every stroke of the drawing and every painting smear. It is no coincidence that the artist sometimes painted his sculptures.

Animalist

About his "Dogs" (1951) connoisseurs love to argue-cynologists, defining her breed, because, despite the unusual proportions, she looks amazingly naturalistic. And some experts are confident in the illustrative accuracy of the sculpture made by Alberto Giacometti. A photo of a dog of the Afghan Hound breed is offered by them as absolute proof.

When the artist himself was asked about this, he answered that "Dog", as well as "Cat" and even "Spider", are just his self-portraits.

The main thing is the person

His subjects, especially of the late period, are diverse: he painted still lifes, landscapes, animals. But the main theme was one, it was the painting and sculpture of Alberto Giacometti that served it. Pointing Man, Walking Man (1960), Man Crossing the Square (1947), Man Walking in the Rain (1949)… narrow slits of different dimensions, needles pierced the space.

He himself attracted people, he himself was expressive and handsome - Alberto Giacometti. The photographs captured his majestic face, his wise, all-understanding look, the films tell about the good power radiated by him and not extinguished until the very end of his journey.

Reason for a closer look

His works are among the most valued in material terms. Alberto Giacometti's Pointing Man, whose photo flooded the Internet in the spring of 2015, as well as Diego's Big Head (1954) and Walking Man in2010, set a record for the cost of art auctions.

Among other things, this is another reason to take a closer look at his creations in order to once again be surprised how art is, how a person is.