Diego Giacometti: Designs Of Life

Diego Giacometti: Designs Of Life

Diego Giacometti (1902 – 1985) was a Swiss sculptor and designer. Over the course of a long and accomplished career working alongside his brother Alberto, Diego’s oeuvre of sculptures and designs echoed the brittle, spare elegance of his elder sibling’s work, whilst articulating a humour and warmth all of their own.

Infused with a spirit of nature, a love of animals and an enduring fascination with form and narrative, Giacometti’s works have been steadily gaining appreciation and attention in recent years.

Here, the writer and renowned authority on Giacometti, Françoise Francisci, shares an insight into the formative years of this extraordinary talent and examines the themes and ideas that shaped his practise, as Sotheby's pays homage to the designer with the sale of an important set of pieces: armchairs, coffee table, table, andirons, bench and light fixtures, from a private collection.
Diego Giacometti (1902 – 1985) was a Swiss sculptor and designer. Over the course of a long and accomplished career working alongside his brother Alberto, Diego’s oeuvre of sculptures and designs echoed the brittle, spare elegance of his elder sibling’s work, whilst articulating a humour and warmth all of their own.

Infused with a spirit of nature, a love of animals and an enduring fascination with form and narrative, Giacometti’s works have been steadily gaining appreciation and attention in recent years.

Here, the writer and renowned authority on Giacometti, Françoise Francisci, shares an insight into the formative years of this extraordinary talent and examines the themes and ideas that shaped his practise, as Sotheby's pays homage to the designer with the sale of an important set of pieces: armchairs, coffee table, table, andirons, bench and light fixtures, from a private collection.

I n the Giacometti family, it was considered normal to have artistic talent. Giovanni Giacometti was a friend of the artist Ferdinand Hodler and an accomplished painter himself. Of his three sons, each would become an accomplished creator – Bruno, Alberto and Diego.

DIEGO GIACOMETTI (1902 - 1985)

Diego (born 1902) was the middle child. Raised in the beautiful Swiss/Italian border town of Stampa, amidst the Engadin mountains, he grew up in rural simplicity, surrounded by forests, animals and nature, by his later recollections, a fairly idyllic, if emotionally turbulent, childhood.

After studying business in Basel and St Gallen, Diego headed to Paris aged 25, to join his elder brother Alberto, and immerse himself in the colourful whirl of the city, then at the height of its roaring 20s cosmopolitanism. Alberto was studying under the master sculptor Antoine Bourdelle at the Academy of the Grand Chaumière and already creating exciting, raw and original new forms. Meanwhile, brother Diego was entranced by the new possibilities being articulated by Marcel Duchamp and his ready-mades, as well as the Surrealists, with their caustic humour and unashamed assertions of freedom.

LOT 147: Diego Giacometti Table basse A l'oiseau et coupelle ESTIMATE: 300,000-400,000GBP

The impact of the Surrealists resonated down the years - later in his career, Diego’s work would return time and again to ideas he picked up during this era – such as using bicycle cords, hooks and ropes in his pieces, combined with the wild animals he recalled from his childhood.

In a move that would refine his sense of proportion and space, Diego began working for renowned interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, alongside Alberto, after which Diego and Alberto began collaborating closely, a close fraternal relationship which lasted to the latter’s death in 1966.

Diego Giacometti Paire de chenets Carcasse ESTIMATE: 150,000 - 200,000EUR


The Giacometti brothers worked together, in a studio space at 46 rue Hippolyte-Maindron. As well as executing commissions from clients and building up Alberto’s own artistic practise, Diego started experimenting with etiolated animal forms, semi-abstract visual concepts and various materials, such as bronze and lost-waxing techniques.

Lot 150: Diego Giacometti: Applique à l'oiseau et à trois branches ESTIMATE:100,000 - 150,000 EUR


The magic of Diego’s vision, his artistry and grounding in concepts ranging from interior design to surrealism, resulted in a timeless oeuvre of Renaissance proportions, where sculpture and function can go hand in hand.

20th Century Design

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