Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure

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Edited by Emilie Bouvard, Director of Collections and Scientific Programme, Fondation
Giacometti, Paris, with contributions from: Catherine Grenier, Director, Fondation Giacometti, and President, Giacometti Institute, William Robinson, Senior Curator of Modern Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Catharina Manchanda, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seattle Art Museum, Serena Bucalo-Mussely, Curator, Fondation Giacometti, Hugo Daniel, Head of the École des Modernités Programs and Associate Curator, Fondation Giacometti, William Rudolph, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Ann Dumas, Curator of European Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Romain Perrin, Associate Curator, Fondation Giacometti.

Published on the occasion of Alberto Giacometti’s work exhibited at major museums in North America, this lavishly illustrated book presents more than one hundred sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints and offers a comprehensive survey of the artist’s work. This volume encompasses his career, from its beginnings in the familial environment in Stampa to its development in Paris, soon characterized by his engagement with the human figure. Beyond the best-known sculptures of Alberto Giacometti’s distinct figurative style that emerged after the Second World War, which includes a series of walking men, elongated standing women, and numerous busts, this volume underlines the significance of his early and midcareer development. His formative period in his native Stampa region, around his father
and his fellow Post-Impressionist painters, is scrutinized with rare paintings and drawings, underlining the significance of landscape in his work. Among the other focuses of this survey that help shed new light on his oeuvre are his studio practice—amply illustrated with photographs—his obsessive involvement in depicting the human head, his collaborations with poets and writers, and his development of the walking man sculpture, thanks to numerous drawings, many of which have never
been shown. Original essays by modern art and Giacometti specialists add special focus, whether on masterpieces, including the Walking Man, the Nose, and the Chariot; or on key aspects of his work, such as the significance of Surrealism, his drawing practice, or the question of space.

240 pages with 266 black-and-white and color illustrations

Published 2022