These following facts about Alberto Giacometti should give and provide you much information about this artist. Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Alberto Giacometti was born in the canton Graubunden’s southerly alpine valley Val Bregaglia and came from an artistic background; his father, Giovanni, was a well-known post-Impressionist painter. Alberto was the eldest of four children and was interested in art from an early age. Furthermore, to get to know more about this artist, here are some other facts about Alberto Giacometti you might like.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 1: Early Life
Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, near the Italian border. He was a descendant of Protestant refugees escaping the Italian Inquisition. His father, Giovanni Giacometti, was a painter. Alberto attended the School of Fine Arts in Geneva.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 2: Monumental Sculpture
In 1958 Giacometti was asked to create a monumental sculpture for the Chase Manhattan Bank building in New York, which was beginning construction. Although he had for many years “harbored an ambition to create work for a public square”, he “had never set foot in New York, and knew nothing about life in a rapidly evolving metropolis”.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 3: Later Works
In his later years Giacometti’s works were shown in a number of large exhibitions throughout Europe. Riding a wave of international popularity, and despite his declining health, he travelled to the United States in 1965 for an exhibition of his works at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 4: Early Adolescence
Since Giacometti achieved exquisite realism with facility when he was executing busts in his early adolescence, Giacometti’s difficulty in re-approaching the figure as an adult is generally understood as a sign of existential struggle for meaning, rather than as a technical deficit.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 5: Surrealist Art Movement
Giacometti was a key player in the Surrealist art movement, but his work resists easy categorization. Some describe it as formalist, others argue it is expressionist or otherwise having to do with what Deleuza calls “blocs of sensation” (as in Deleuze’s analysis of Francis Bacon).
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 6: Exhibitions
Giacometti’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including most recently Pushkin Museum, Moscow (2008); “The Studio of Alberto Giacometti: Collection of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti”, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2007–2008); Kunsthal Rotterdam (2008); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2009), Buenos Aires (2012); and Kunsthalle Hamburg (2013).
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 7: Art Foundation
The Fondation Alberto et Annetto Giacometti, having received a bequest from Alberto Giacometti’s widow Annette, holds a collection of circa 5,000 works, frequently displayed around the world through exhibitions and long-term loans.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 8: Notable Sales
In November 2000 a Giacometti bronze, Grande Femme Debout I, sold for $14.3 million. Grande Femme Debout II was bought by the Gagosian Gallery for $27.4 million at Christie’s auction in New York City on May 6, 2008.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 9: Legacies
Giacometti created the monument on the grave of Gerda Taro at Pere Lachaise Cemetery. In 2001 he was included in the Painting the Century 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900-2000 exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Facts about Alberto Giacometti 10: Death
Giacometti died in 1966 of heart disease (pericarditis) and chronic bronchitis at the Kantonsspital in Chur, Switzerland. His body was returned to his birthplace in Borgonovo, where he was interred close to his parents. In May 2007 the executor of his widow’s estate, French foreign minister Roland Dumas, was convicted of illegally selling Giacometti’s works to a top auctioneer, Jacques Tajan, who was also convicted.
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