Alberto Giacometti: 13 interesting facts

Alberto Giacometti (,US: /ˌdʒɑːk-/,Italian: [alˈbɛrto dʒakoˈmetti]; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his intimates and work upon his art.

Giacometti was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His undertaking was particularly influenced by artistic styles such as Cubism and Surrealism. Philosophical questions more or less the human condition, as capably as existential and phenomenological debates played a significant role in his work. Around 1935 he gave up upon his Surrealist influences in order to pursue a more deepened analysis of figurative compositions. Giacometti wrote texts for periodicals and exhibition catalogues and recorded his thoughts and memories in notebooks and diaries. His indispensable nature led to self-doubt about his own appear in and his self-perceived inability to complete justice to his own artistic vision. His insecurities still remained a powerful motivating artistic force throughout his entire life.

Between 1938 and 1944 Giacometti’s sculptures had a maximum top of seven centimeters (2.75 inches). Their small size reflected the actual turn away from between the artist’s position and his model. In this context he self-critically stated: “But wanting to Make from memory what I had seen, to my dread the sculptures became smaller and smaller”. After World War II, Giacometti created his most famous sculptures: his extremely tall and slender figurines. These sculptures were subject to his individual viewing experience—between an imaginary yet real, a tangible yet inaccessible space.

In Giacometti’s sum up body of work, his painting constitutes deserted a little part. After 1957, however, his symbolic paintings were equally as present as his sculptures. His roughly speaking monochromatic paintings of his late work do not lecture to to any new artistic styles of modernity.