He was a rare figure: among the most avant-garde artists of Paris, he was engaged in art without abstruse and deafening slogans, without outrageous and declarations.
Artist's son
Он был почти ровесником XX века и родился в 1901 year in the town of Stump, in the Italian part of Switzerland. Alberto Giacometti was the son of a famous post-impressionist artist and from childhood grew up in an atmosphere of interest in the visual arts, and interest, free from the framework of adherence to a particular trend or style. The artist carried this feeling throughout his life.
But first he copies the paintingsfather and works in his manner and in the style of Fauvism. In sculpture, he began by working in an academic manner. After studying in the sculpture class at the Geneva School of Fine Arts, he travels to Italy and then moves to France. Alberto Giacometti, whose biography began in Switzerland, worked almost all his life in a workshop on Montparnasse in Paris, leaving only for summer time to his relatives.
Choose a specialty
Since 1922, he begins learning from the sculptorEmile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), a student of the great Rodin, and with interruptions has been studying with him for 5 years. Since 1925, drawing and painting have become auxiliary genres for Alberto Giacometti, and from now on, the main artistic specialty will be sculpture.
Paris of the first decades of the 20th century - the centerartistic life of the world. In communicating the young leaders of the new trends in the visual arts, literature, and philosophy, there was a sharpening of new styles and ideas, their interaction and interaction. Alberto Giacometti could not avoid it. Sculptures of that time bear clear traces of the formalistic research of Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and, of course, the Cubists. Such, for example, "Torso" (1925).
The influence of primitive art
In search of the undistorted essence of the portrayedThe avant-gardists of the Paris school paid attention to the art of peoples who were not spoiled by civilization. Exhibitions of ritual masks and totem idols from Africa, Oceania and South America, masterpieces of archaeological finds of the ancient Egyptian era - all this was studied with the same interest. Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani - artists of various directions used similar motifs in painting and sculpture.
"Couple", "Spoon Woman" (1926) - one of the mostexpressive things of that period in Alberto Giacometti. The combination of totemic radical simplification of the form, the expression of the masculine and feminine elements in the form of symbols, silhouettes, is extremely concentrated here. The artist will use these finds in the future, but the unique frontal location (like these sculptures) is rarely found in Giacometti.
Variety of styles
Никогда не запирая себя в каком-то однозначном style, he easily changed the style, especially at the initial stage. Alberto Giacometti, whose biography is a constant and strenuous work, eventually developed his own special, unique and recognizable type of sculptural images - elongated, fragile, with a pulsating surface figures, fascinating space around them.
And at first they were simplified to minimalism.plates, in which the signs of the models were non-cardinal relief changes: "Head" (1931), "Weasel" (1932). There was a period when he was considered to be his undoubted supporter of the surrealists. "Woman with a cut throat" (1932): a surprisingly strong impression of violence is achieved by preparing the volume on a plane, when individual biomorphic elements appear to be a torn body that has undergone monstrous metamorphosis. "Surreal table" (1933) - furniture element - the composition of self-sufficient in the sense of the elements combined to create a new story.
The famous "Hanging Ball" (1931) is an amazing materialization of sensations that are individual for each viewer: one erotic experiences are dreamed of, and the other feels a painful cut.
But the surreal period also became passing. The study of the diversity of life, passing around at a given time, and the person in this time became the main theme for the artist.
Time dictating topics
Switzerland is a neutral country, but remain inside of the global military tragedy failed to anyone. The days were still filled with labor, but few large-scale and significant works were created. It was not by chance that painting and drawing again began to occupy more space in the work of Alberto Giacometti. Sculptures literally diminished - human figures fit in a matchbox. Studying the interaction of volume and space, time and mass, the artist is experimenting with size.
These studies formed the basis of the works that broughtmaster worldwide recognition immediately after the war. So, the most expensive sculpture by Alberto Giacometti “The Pointing Man” was created in 1947. Cast in bronze, 180 cm high, this work of the master was sold in spring 2015 at Christie's for $ 141.285 million.
Confession
Highlights at the 1948 exhibitions in New Yorkand in 1950 in Paris was devoted to sculpture, expressing the fragility and helplessness of a person in a world of violence, inability to resist the inexorable passage of time. Together with the amazing drawings and paintings by Alberto Giacometti, the sculptures were expositions that always enjoyed tremendous success.
Busts and figures that he nonstop sculptedfrom their permanent models — Diego’s brother and Annette’s wives — do not have momentary materiality and real volume, they seem to be turned off from space, endowed with meaning for which the present moment is not important.
Keeping the author's visual expression of energy inin the form of a bubbling texture created by the sculptor’s innumerable touches of the sculptor’s fingers, they fascinate with a force similar to the energy of a stretched bow. It is almost literally symbolized by the same “Pointing Man” by Alberto Giacometti. A photo of this sculpture from a certain angle is an archer who in a second will launch an implacable arrow.
Expressionism in painting
Giacometti's drawings and paintings are notthe preparatory stage for future voluminous works, although the sculptor’s view is felt in them. A portrait or figure is modeled by a multitude of contours. Especially characteristic of Giacometti is the use of two contrasting lines. The picture looks like a complex mesh structure with an almost three-dimensional effect, with each line being accurate and relevant.
Paintings by Giacometti and hisSculptures are related not only to skillful use of volume, not only the characteristic lengthening of the depicted figures and faces, but also that unprecedented energy, the emotions that each dent denotes on the surface of the sculpture, each stroke of the drawing and each beautiful brushstroke. It is not by chance that the artist sometimes painted his sculptures.
Animal painter
Near his "Dogs" (1951) love to argueexperts dog handlers, determining its breed, because, despite the unusual proportions, it looks surprisingly naturalistic. And some experts believe in the illustrative accuracy of the sculpture made by Alberto Giacometti. Photos of the Afghan Hound breed dog are offered by them as absolute proof.
When the artist himself was asked about this, he replied that “Dog”, as well as “Cat” and even “Spider”, are just his self-portraits.
The main thing is man
His plots, especially late period,varied: he wrote still lifes, landscapes, animals. But the main theme was one, it was the painting and sculpture of Alberto Giacometti who served it. “The Pointing Man”, “The Walking Man” (1960), “The Man Crossing the Square” (1947), “The Man Who Walks in the Rain” (1949) ... His statues expressed human vulnerability, stood peering at the current time, made their way through narrow slits of different dimensions, pierced space with needles.
He himself attracted people, he himself was expressiveand handsome - Alberto Giacometti. Photos captured his magnificent face, his wise, all-understanding look, films tell about the good power radiated by him and not extinct until the very end of his journey.
Reason for a close look
His works are among the most valued inmaterial terms. “The Pointing Man” Alberto Giacometti, with whom the Internet flooded the photos in the spring of 2015, as well as “Diego's Big Head” (1954) and “Walking Man” in 2010, set a record in value at the auction of works of art.
Among other things, this is an extra reason to look more closely at his creations in order to once again wonder what art is like, what a person is like.
