He was a rare figure: among the most avant-garde artists in Paris, he was engaged in art without abstruse and deafening slogans, without shocking and declarations.
He is called one of the greatest sculptors of the XX century, and Alberto Giacometti worked, not noticing the time, forgetting about sleep and food. He loved to repeat that 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 Stump, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Alberto Giacometti was the son of a well-known post-impressionist artist and since childhood grew up in an atmosphere of interest in the visual arts, moreover, interest that is free from the framework of his commitment to a particular movement 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 class of the Geneva School of Fine Arts, he travels to Italy, and then moves to France. Alberto Giacometti, whose biography began in Switzerland, worked for almost his entire life in a workshop on Montparnasse in Paris, leaving only for the summer to his relatives.
Specialty selection
In 1922, he began his studies with the sculptor Emil-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), a student of the great Rodin and studied with him intermittently for 5 years. Since 1925, drawing and painting have become auxiliary genres for Alberto Giacometti, and sculpting will now be his main artistic specialty.
Paris of the first decades of the XX century is the center of the artistic life of the world. In the communication of the young leaders of the new trends in the visual arts, literature, and philosophy, the honing of new styles and ideas, their interaction and mutual influence took place. Could not escape this and Alberto Giacometti. The sculptures of that time bear obvious traces of the formalistic research of Konstantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and, of course, cubists. Such, for example, Torso (1925).
The influence of primitive art
In search of the undistorted essence of the depicted, the avant-garde artists of the Paris school drew attention to the art of peoples not spoiled by civilization. Exhibitions of ritual masks and totemic idols from Africa, Oceania and South America, masterpieces of archaeological finds of the ancient Egyptian era - all this was studied with constant interest. Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani - artists of various directions used similar motifs in painting and sculpture.
“Couple”, “Woman Spoon” (1926) are one of the most expressive things of that period among Alberto Giacometti. The combination of the totemic radical simplification of the form, the expression of the masculine and feminine in the form of symbols, silhouettes, is extremely concentrated here. The artist will use these finds in the future, but the frontal arrangement (like those of these sculptures) is rare in Giacometti rarely.
Variety of styles
Never locking himself in any unambiguous style, he easily changed his style, especially at the initial stage. Alberto Giacometti, whose biography is a constant and intense work, eventually developed his own special, unique and recognizable type of sculptural images - elongated, fragile, with a pulsating surface figures that fascinate the space around him.
And in the beginning there were plates simplified to minimalism, in which the features of the models were non-cardinal changes in the relief: “Head” (1931), “Weasel” (1932). There was a period when the surrealists considered him their undoubted adherent. “Woman with a Cut Throat” (1932): a surprisingly strong impression of violence is achieved by dissecting volume on a plane, when individual biomorphic elements appear to be torn apart by a body that has undergone monstrous metamorphoses. "Surrealistic table" (1933) - a furniture element - a composition of self-sufficient in meaning elements combined to create a new story.
The famous “Suspended Ball” (1931) is an amazing materialization of sensations that are individual for each viewer: one experiences erotic experiences, and the other feels a painful cut.
But the surreal period has also passed. The study of the diversity of life passing around at a given moment in time, and the person at that time became the main theme for the artist.
Time dictating topics
Switzerland is a neutral country, but no one was able to stay away from the world military tragedy. The days were still filled with labor, but there were not many large-scale and significant works. It is no accident that painting and drawing again began to occupy more space in the work of Alberto Giacometti. The sculptures literally diminished - 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 work that brought the master worldwide recognition immediately after the war. So, the most expensive sculpture of 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 auction for $ 141.285 million.
Confession
The main place at the exhibitions of 1948 in New York and 1950 in Paris was given to a sculpture expressing the fragility and defenselessness of a person in the world of violence, the inability to withstand the inexorable course of time. Together with amazing drawings and paintings by Alberto Giacometti, the sculptures constituted the exposition, which invariably enjoyed great success.
The busts and figures that he non-stop sculpted from his constant models - Diego's brother and Annette's wife - 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 unimportant.
Preserving the visual expression of the author’s energy in the form of a bubbling texture created by innumerable touches of the sculptor’s fingers, they mesmerize with a force similar to the energy of a stretched bow. This is almost literally symbolized by the same “Pointing Man” by Alberto Giacometti. A photo of this sculpture from a certain angle is an archer who will release an implacable arrow in a second.
Expressionism in painting
Giacometti's drawings and paintings are not a preparatory stage for future voluminous works, although the sculptor’s eyes are felt in them. A portrait or figure is modeled by a variety of contours. Especially characteristic for Giacometti is the use of two contrasting color lines. The pattern looks like a complex mesh structure with an almost three-dimensional effect, with each line being accurate and appropriate.
The paintings of Giacometti and his sculptures are related not only by the skillful use of volume, not only by the characteristic lengthening of the figures and faces, but also by that unprecedented energy, the emotions that emanate from each dent on the surface of the sculpture, from every stroke of the picture and from every painting stroke. It is no accident that the artist sometimes painted his sculptures.
Animal painter
Around his "Dogs" (1951) dog experts like to argue, determining her breed, because, despite the unusual proportions, she looks surprisingly naturalistic. And some experts are confident in the illustrative accuracy of the sculpture made by Alberto Giacometti. A photo of an Afghan hound dog is offered by them as absolute evidence.
When asked about this by the artist himself, he replied that “Dog”, as well as “Cat” and even “Spider”, were just his self-portraits.
The main thing is man
His subjects, especially of the late period, are diverse: he painted still lifes, landscapes, animals. But the main theme was one, it was she who served as the painting and sculpture of Alberto Giacometti. “Pointing Man”, “Walking Man” (1960), “Man Crossing the Square” (1947), “A Man Walking in the Rain” (1949) ... His statues expressed human vulnerability, stood, peering at the current time, made their way through narrow slots of various dimensions, pierced the space with needles.
He himself attracted people, he was expressive and beautiful - Alberto Giacometti. Photos captured his magnificent face, his wise, all-understanding look, films tell about the good power emitted by him and not extinct until the very end of his journey.
Reason for a close look
His works are one of the most appreciated in material terms. "Pointing Man" Alberto Giacometti, a photo with which flooded the Internet in the spring of 2015, as well as "Big Head Diego" (1954) and "Walking Man" in 2010, set a record for the price at the auction of works of art.
Among other things, this is another reason to look more closely at his creations in order to once again be surprised at what kind of art happens, what kind of person happens.