Alberto Giacometti

Lampadaire Modèle Figure

$500,000.00

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Description/

The 1930’s constitute a decisive turning point in Alberto Giacometti’s relationship with the decorative arts. His encounter with Jean-Michel Frank, whose influence still resonates today, defines a more serious involvement. Henceforth the sculptor occupies a central position among Frank’s collaborators where his creations become essential to each of his projects. For about ten years, the two friends helped by the expertise of Diego Giacometti created a rich variety of objects to adorn the interior of an elitist clientele, including Hubert de Givenchy, Marguerite and Aimé Maeght as well as Nelson Rockefeller. Lampadaire modèle “figure”, comes from the collection of the famous photographer and Alberto Giacometti’s friend, Brassaï. This delicate model, combining artistic and functional elegance, evokes a light silhouette with a soft feminine figure with raised shoulders. The composition retains an aesthetic and approach similar to the artist’s sculptures. On several occasions, his experiences in one field resonated in the other so much so that it is impossible to say whether it was the decorative arts that influenced his practice as a sculptor or vice versa.

Bronze with a dark brown patina.

Alberto Giacometti

designer

Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and work on his art. Giacometti was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced by artistic styles such as Cubism and Surrealism. Philosophical questions about the human condition, as well as existential and phenomenological debates, played a significant role in his work. Around 1935 he gave up on his Surrealist influences in order to pursue a more deepened analysis of figurative compositions. Giacometti wrote texts for periodicals and exhibition catalogs and recorded his thoughts and memories in notebooks and diaries. His critical nature led to self-doubt about his own work and his self-perceived inability to do justice to his own artistic vision. His insecurities nevertheless remained a powerful motivating artistic force throughout his entire life. Between 1938 and 1944 Giacometti's sculptures had a maximum height of seven centimeters (2.75 inches). Their small size reflected the actual distance between the artist's position and his model. In this context, he self-critically stated: "But wanting to create from memory what I had seen, to my terror the sculptures became smaller and smaller". After World War II, Giacometti created his most famous sculptures: his extremely tall and slender figurines. These sculptures were subject to his individual viewing experience—between an imaginary yet real, a tangible yet inaccessible space. In Giacometti's whole body of work, his painting constitutes only a small part. After 1957, however, his figurative paintings were equally as present as his sculptures. The almost monochromatic paintings of his late work do not refer to any other artistic styles of modernity.