- 335
Alberto Giacometti
Description
- Alberto Giacometti
- FIGURINE
- Inscribed A. Giacometti, numbered 8/8 and inscribed susse fondeur paris; also stamped with the raised foundry mark on the interior Susse Fondeur Cire Perdue, Paris
- Bronze, brown and green patina
- Height: 11 1/4 in.
- 28.6cm
Provenance
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Literature
Alberto Giacometti, sculptures, peintures, dessins, (exhibition catalogue), Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1991-1992, no. 85, p. 176, illustration of another cast
Catalogue Note
The mid-1940s proved to be a watershed period in Giacometti's artistic production. His preoccupation with Surrealism waned and the stylization of his figures became increasingly elongated. In fact, Giacometti mused, "In time, I realized what sculpture is all about... Have you ever noticed that the truer a work is the more stylized it is? That seems strange, because style certainly does not conform to the reality of appearances, and yet the heads that come closest to resembling people I see on the street are those that are the least naturalistic- the sculptures of the Egyptians, the Chinese, the archaic Greeks, and the Summerians" (Reinhold Hohl, Alberto Giacometti, New York, 1971, p. 136). Indeed, the static sculpture of the ancient Egyptians had a profound effect on Giacometti's Femme de Venise and Figurine series as well as his other mature work (see Fig. 1). In 1947, his figures became patently "skeletal" or massless in exectuion and would remain as such until after 1951, when his interest shifted to the depiction of his brother Diego.
Fig. 1 Egyptian, The Woman Hennu from the Grave of the Fleet-Overseer Necht in Siut, Middle Kingdom, circa 1900 B.C., (Egyptian National Museum of Cairo)
Fig. 2 Alberto Giacometti in his studio, 1947 (photo by Brassaï)