Alberto Giacometti

Biography

Swiss sculptor and painter, known for his unique interpretations of proportion and space. A giant of twentieth

century art, he stands alongside Picasso and Matisse as an artist who defined the way the century is

perceived and is one of the few modern artists who has created sculpture, paintings and drawings with equal

mastery. He was the winner of the Venice Biennale's Grand Prize of Sculpture in 1962 and the Guggenheim

International Award for painting in 1964.

The oldest son (Alberto, Deigo and Bruno) of post Impressionist painter Giovanni Giacometti and homemaker

mother Annetta, Alberto was encouraged as a child to follow in his father's footsteps in art, despite the

mediocre talent he demonstrated in his early years. Fortune smiled when his father was appointed to the

Swiss delegation of the Venice Biennale and the adolescent Alberto accompanied him to Venice, where he

discovered the world of Italian art from the Renaissance to the present. Remaining in Venice after his father

returned to Switzerland, the art-intoxicated youth began his serious study and eventually traveled to Florence

and Rome, where he drew and sculpted. After moving to Paris at age 20, he enrolled at the Academie de la

Grand Chaumiere the following year where he studied with Antoine Bourdelle for three years. In 1927 he

established a studio in Rue Hippolyte-Maindron where he worked until shortly before his death.

Joining the Surrealists in 1930, he entered a sustained period of great creativity, molding his sculptures as

semi-primitive, schematic figures with protrusions to indicate gender. One hard-core surrealist work from this

time entitled "Woman With Her Throat Cut" is considered a genuine masterpiece. His one-of-a-kind sculpture

brought him fame; he hobnobbed with the thriving colony of artists and writers in Paris; yet familiarity among

his peers bred contempt, resulting in his expulsion from the Surrealists in 1935. "The better things go the less

closely tied to others you are." Following his departure from the Surrealists, Giacometti adamantly refused to

involve himself in a movement of any kind.

Insisting that art demanded obsession, Giacometti primarily turned his attention to sculpture and beginning in

1936, sculpted works that progressively dwindled in size to the point that, prior to World War II, were the size

of a pin-head.

At the outbreak of war, Giacometti fled to his native and neutral Switzerland, where he lived until 1945. Upon

his return to Paris, he carried his latest works in six matchboxes. After the war, his minuscule sculptures began

to expand in size until the likeness was elongated, emaciated and disturbing. The war left its mark. Harboring

profound anxiety about the human condition, he viewed alienation and despair as a prerequisite for hope,
recognizing that the beautiful and the absurd often intermingle in the modern world. He spent more time on

painting and critics argued that Giacometti turned sculpture into a kind of painting. A woman standing, a man

walking and the bust were the dominant themes in his work. In later years, his brother Diego, who cast

Giacometti's pieces, became his favorite model.

In 1935 there were no takers for his work at prices of $150. Twenty years later, he was a huge success, with

exhibitions of his work in America and Europe. Despite his wealth, Giacometti remained living in his studio,

built in the 19th century, without modern plumbing. In 1938, he was hit by a car in Paris and, after months of

recuperation in a hospital, retained a slight limp. He made one marriage, in 1949, to a Parisian woman named

Annette who also frequently served as one of his models. Throughout his life he showed a marked devotion to

his mother, spending extended vacations visiting her while drawing and sketching in his native village in

Switzerland. He died pf heart disease and bronchitis on January 11, 1966 in Chur, Switzerland.

Link to Wikipedia biography