Alberto Giacometti - Master of the match thinning

Alberto Giacometti 's works . Of course, Giacometti is not just an artist for children, but it is one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century .

Giacometti showed talent early on, almost innate, his uncle Augusto was known as an outstanding painter, who also participated in the Zurich Dada district with his abstract compositions. His father also earned his money through painting, Giacometti's godfather was the Swiss painter Cuno Amiet, the “Bonnard the Swiss”, who was part of the Pont-Aven district of Paul Gauguins and worked for a long time in the Expressionist Dresden artist association “Die Brücke”.

Accordingly, the Giacometti children were encouraged, all Giacomettis learned to draw and model, Alberto's brother Bruno chose the architecture as a profession, brother Diego became sculptor and furniture designer.

Alberto himself made the first precise drawings for copper engravings in Dürer at the age of 12 In addition to these proofs of artistic talent, he was also an above -average student , already at the middle school he was allowed to set up his own room as a studio.

At the age of 18 he decided on the artist's career, the school broke off in front of the Matura (Abitur) and began studying art for painting, drawing and sculpture in Geneva in the fall of 1919 .

In 1920 he accompanied his father to the Biennale in Venice, in Italy he studied tintoretto and Giotto's frescoes and was impressed by the works of Alexander Archipenkos and Paul Cézannes. In 1921 he expanded these impressions on a long study trip through Italy, in 1922 he went to Paris, where he was mainly to be.

Giacometti took further courses here, in sculpture and in committee drawing, in 1925 his teacher Émile-Antoine Bourdelle enabled him to make the first exhibition in the Salon of the Tuilerie, in the same year he also moved into his first own studio with his brother Diego, who followed Paris. The studio was in the middle of the then most creative quarter of Paris, in Montparnasse , the brothers now met numerous other creative people who gave them further acquaintances.

This sometimes brought work to make a living, the Giacomettis learned z. B. through Man Ray, know the furniture designer Jean-Michel Frank, for whom they made home accessories. This recommended them to the well -off society of Paris, they created jewelry for fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and sculptures for a vicomte.

But of course this place of residence also conveyed an enormous artistic suggestion that the brothers got to know personalities such as Louis Aragon and Hans Arp, Alexander Calder and André Breton , Jean Cocteau and Max Ernst, Joan Miró and Jacques Prévert, many became friends.

Alberto showed himself more talented and capable of developing than his brother, who became more and more a closest employee, while Alberto took part in group exhibitions in the early 1930s, joined his surrealist group , etching and copper stitching and made illustrations.

However, when he modeled more after nature around 1935, Breton saw this as a betrayal of the surrealist, Giacometti withdrew from the group and lost many friends.

Shortly before, his beloved father had also died, Giacometti got into a creative crisis, from which he only released friendship to Picasso

A renewed setback was Giacometti's serious traffic accident in 1938 , from which he retained a mistake and which some interpreters blame for the oversized feet of his sculptures. But it went up again when Giacometti met Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in 1939; Like Sartre, he was interested in philosophical phenomenology, which, however, did not lead to a script with him, but embodied himself in nut -sized sculpture.

Giacometti was also able to exhibit at the Swiss state exhibition in Zurich in 1939, but a larger work had to be brought up than the currently produced tiny figures.

A little later, Giacometti's new form of artistic expression in miniature sculptures should prove to be extremely contemporary: he was able to quickly bury them in his studio at the Paris March of the German Wehrmacht before he fled to Geneva and waited for World War II in Switzerland. At the end of 1945 he returned to Paris and moved in with Annette arm, which he married in 1949.

During the war, Giacometti had remained arrested by the mini format, now his sculptures became thinner and longer, these “pin figures” now made him successful internationally: in 1948 he exhibited in New York for the first time and was cheered on by critics, and he was also aware of heeled collectors and bought in.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the slim figures went around in European exhibitions and were enthusiastic, Giacometti received orders for etchings, portrayed Henri Matisse for a commemorative coin shortly before his death and worked on the group “Les Femmes de Venise” , which he exhibited in 1956 in the French Pavilion on the Biennale Venice.

He drew Igor Stravinsky in 1957 and portrayed Jean Genet, who returned with a much praised book about the artist, in 1959 Giacometti was seen on Documenta II, he exhibited in Kassel a work that was part of an unprecedented group draft for the New York Chase Manhattan Bank, which “Trois Hommes Qui Marchent” from 1947.

The now world -famous artist has now received great sums for his works, he had a dodgy affair (which lasted until his death), but also distributed a lot of money to his relatives and his wife. In 1961 he created the stage decoration for the new production of “Waiting for Godot” for Samuel Beckett, and his world fame was finally confirmed at the Venice Biennale 1962, where he was able to accept the Grand Prix for sculpture.

The artist who died in 1966, who thought “big figures to be wrong and very small for unacceptable”, will remain unforgettable forever by his match thin , which touch the viewer in a very own way.

For further reading about this fascinating artist, we recommend the following work (available conveniently via Amazon). This publication presents Alberto Giacometti's mature work in a comprehensive overview. Based on a variety of sculptures - in addition to bronze, some original places by the artist - as well as with paintings and drawings, the richly illustrated band gives a multi -layered insight into the fascinating work of one of the most important artists of the 20th century.

In the following short video you will see the start of a portrait series for this great artist. The portrait contains original recordings by Alberto Giacometti when working. One can pursue the emergence of an image and a sculpture. We wish you good entertainment!