Alberto Giacometti's masterpieces (music by Liszt)
Alberto Giacometti was born
October 10,
1901, in
Borgonovo,
Switzerland, and grew up in the nearby town of Stampa. His father,
Giovanni, was a Post-Impressionist painter. From
1919 to
1920, he studied painting at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts and sculpture and drawing at the
Ecole des Arts et Métiers in
Geneva. In 1920, he traveled to
Italy, where he was impressed by the works of
Alexander Archipenko and
Paul Cézanne at the
Venice Biennale. He was also deeply affected by African and
Egyptian art and by the masterpieces of
Giotto and
Tintoretto. In
1922,
Giacometti settled in
Paris, making frequent visits to Stampa, and occasionally attended
Antoine Bourdelle's sculpture classes.
In
1927, the artist moved into a studio with his brother,
Diego, his lifelong companion and assistant, and exhibited his sculpture for the first time at the
Salon des Tuileries, Paris. His first show in Switzerland, shared with his father, was held at the Galerie Aktuaryus,
Zurich, in 1927.
The following year, Giacometti met
André Masson, and by
1930 he was a participant in the
Surrealist circle until 1934. His first solo show took place in 1932 at the Galerie
Pierre Colle, Paris. In 1934, his first
American solo exhibition opened at the
Julien Levy Gallery,
New York. During the early
1940s, he became friends with
Simone de Beauvoir,
Pablo Picasso, and
Jean-Paul Sartre. From
1942, Giacometti lived in Geneva, where he associated with the publisher
Albert Skira.
He returned to Paris in 1946. In 1948, he was given a solo show at the
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
The artist's friendship with
Samuel Beckett began around 1951. In
1955, he was honored with retrospectives at the
Arts Council Gallery,
London, and the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. He received the Sculpture Prize at the
1961 Carnegie International in
Pittsburgh and the
Grand Prize for Sculpture at the 1962 Venice Biennale, where he was given his own exhibition area. In
1965, Giacometti exhibitions were organized by the
Tate Gallery, London, the
Museum of Modern Art, New York, the
Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek,
Denmark, and the
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. That same year, he was awarded the
Grand Prix National des Arts by the
French government. Giacometti died
January 11, 1966, in
Chur.