Alberto Giacometti

James Lord (acquired from the artist in 1953)
James Alsdorf, Chicago
Alberto Loeb and Krugier Gallery, New York
Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above in 1970)
Private Collection, Caracas (acquired from the above in 1970)
Sale: Christie’s, New York, November 14, 1989, lot 87
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Between 1925 and 1946 Giacometti painted scarcely a dozen canvases. He returned to Paris in 1945 and from 1946 began to devote a considerable amount of time to painting in a burst of creativity that followed the fallow period of the War years. Once he returned to modeling from life, he found painting and drawing to be essential to his investigation of figures in space. In a number of works from the late 1940s and early 1950s - for example, the celebrated The Artist’s Mother in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York – Giacometti developed a linear style of singular complexity.  In the present work, however, only the figure of the standing nude is clearly defined.

 

Valerie J. Fletcher has commented on the use of the space frame seen in this work and in many of Giacometti’s paintings: “Giacometti’s fascination with distorted space partially accounts for the frames he painted or drew around nearly all his images. He had begun this practice as early as 1917-18, but after 1946 it became almost standard.  Recalling the Renaissance definition of a painting as a window on the world, this framing device opens up and encloses an imaginary three-dimensional reality. By isolating the figure in as remote and uncertain environment, Giacometti marks off the figure’s space as distinct from our reality.  When asked why he used these framing outlines, he replied: “Because I do not determine the true space of the figure until after it is finished. And with the vague intention of reducing the canvas, I try to fictionalize my painting… And also because my figures need a sort of no man’s land” (Valerie J. Fletcher, Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966, (exhibition catalogue), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1988-89, pp. 47-48).