View source for Alberto Giacometti

{{Short description|Swiss sculptor and painter (1901–1966)}}
{{Redirect|Giacometti|other people named Giacometti|Giacometti (surname)|the racehorse|Giacometti (horse)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| name        = Alberto Giacometti 
| image       = Emmy Andriesse - Alberto Giacometti (Ende 1940er PK-F-A.06801).jpg
| image_size  = 250px
| caption     = Alberto Giacometti (1948) <br>(photo by [[Emmy Andriesse]])
| birth_name   =
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1901|10|10|df=y}}
| birth_place    =  [[Borgonovo, Switzerland|Borgonovo]], [[Stampa]], [[Grisons]], Switzerland
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1966|01|11|1901|10|10|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Chur]], Grisons, Switzerland
| spouse  =  {{marriage|Annette Arm|1949}}
| field       = Sculpture, painting, drawing
| training    = The School of Fine Arts, [[Geneva]]
| movement    = [[Surrealism]], [[Expressionism]], [[Cubism]], [[Formalism (art)|Formalism]]
| notable_works    ={{plainlist|
* ''[[Tête qui regarde]]''  
* ''[[The Palace at 4 a.m.]]''  
* ''[[L'Homme au doigt]]'' 
* ''[[Grande tête mince]]'' 
* ''[[Large Standing Woman I]]'' 
* ''[[Monumental Head]]'' 
* ''[[L'Homme qui marche I]]''}}

| patrons     =
| awards      = ''"Grand Prize for Sculpture"'' at [[Venice Biennale|1962 Venice Biennale]]
| website     = {{URL|fondation-giacometti.fr}}
}}

'''Alberto Giacometti''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|dʒ|æ|k|ə|ˈ|m|ɛ|t|i}},<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Giacometti,+Alberto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320024159/https://www.lexico.com/definition/giacometti,_alberto?s=t |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 March 2022 |title=Giacometti, Alberto |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|USalso|ˌ|dʒ|ɑː|k|-}},<ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Giacometti|access-date=28 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/giacometti|title=Giacometti|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=28 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Giacometti|access-date=28 July 2019}}</ref> {{IPA|it|alˈbɛrto dʒakoˈmetti|lang}}; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, [[Drafter|draftsman]] and [[Printmaking|printmaker]], who 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 [[Existentialism|existential]] and [[phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] debates played a significant role in his work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gerber |first=Louis |date=8 September 2001 |title=Alberto Giacometti |url=https://cosmopolis.ch/de/alberto-giacometti/ |access-date=4 July 2024 |website=Cosmopolis}}</ref>

Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown [[Borgonovo, Switzerland|Borgonovo]] to see his family and work on his art. Around 1935, he gave up on his Surrealist influences to pursue a more deepened analysis of [[Figurative art|figurative]] compositions.

Giacometti wrote texts for periodicals and exhibition catalogues 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.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1010067077 ''Fondation Beyeler. The Collection.''] Ed. by Vischer, Theodora, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel. {{ISBN|9783775743334}}. [[OCLC]]&nbsp;[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1010067077 1010067077].</ref>

Between 1938 and 1944 Giacometti's sculptures had a maximum height of seven centimeters (2.75 inches).<ref>Angela Schneider: ''Wie aus weiter Ferne. Konstanten im Werk Giacomettis,'' in: Angela Schneider: ''Giacometti.'' p. 71</ref> 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".<ref>Letter to [[Pierre Matisse]], 1947. In: ''Exhibition of Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings'', exh. cat. [[Pierre Matisse Gallery]] (New York, 1948), pp. 29.</ref>

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.<ref>Reinhold Hohl: ''Lebenschronik''. In: Angela Schneider: ''Giacometti,'' p. 26</ref>

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 [[monochrome painting]]s of his late work do not refer to any other artistic styles of modernity.<ref>Lucius Grisebach: ''Die Malerei,'' in: Angela Schneider: ''Giacometti,'' p. 82</ref>

== Early life ==
[[File:Sick boy (Alberto) in bed by Giovanni Giacometti.jpg|thumb|left|upright 1.3|"Sick boy in bed" (Alberto), by [[Giovanni Giacometti]]]]
Giacometti was born in [[Borgonovo, Switzerland|Borgonovo]], Switzerland, the eldest of four children of [[Giovanni Giacometti]], a well-known [[Post-Impressionism|post-Impressionist]] painter, and Annetta Giacometti-Stampa. He was a descendant of Protestant refugees escaping the [[Italian Inquisition|inquisition]]. Coming from an artistic background, he was interested in art from an early age and was encouraged by his father and godfather.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alberto-Giacometti|title=Alberto Giacometti &#124; Swiss sculptor and painter &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com}}</ref>

Alberto attended the [[Geneva]] School of [[Fine art|Fine Arts]]. His brothers [[Diego Giacometti|Diego]] (1902–1985) and [[Bruno Giacometti|Bruno]] (1907–2012) would go on to become artists and architects as well. Additionally, his cousin [[Zaccaria Giacometti]], later professor of constitutional law and chancellor of the [[University of Zurich]], grew up together with them, having been orphaned at the age of 12 in 1905.<ref>Andreas Kley: ''Von Stampa nach Zürich. Der Staatsrechtler Zaccaria Giacometti, sein Leben und Werk und seine Bergeller Künstlerfamilie'', Zürich 2014, pp. 89 et seq.</ref>

== Career ==
[[File:Alberto Giacometti (1901 - 1966), peintre et sculpteur, CP1335.jpg|thumb|upright 1.5|Giacometti at work.]]
In 1922, he moved to Paris to study under the sculptor [[Antoine Bourdelle]], an associate of [[Auguste Rodin|Rodin]]. It was there that Giacometti experimented with [[Cubism]] and [[Surrealism]] and came to be regarded as one of the leading Surrealist sculptors. Among his associates were [[Joan Miró|Miró]], [[Max Ernst]], [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], [[Bror Hjorth]], and [[Balthus]].

Between 1936 and 1940, Giacometti concentrated his sculpting on the human head, focusing on the sitter's gaze. He preferred models he was close to—his sister and the artist [[Isabel Rawsthorne]] (then known as Isabel Delmer).<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.francis-bacon.com/outofthecage| title = Jacobi, Carol. ''Out of the Cage: The Art of Isabel Rawsthorne'', London: The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, Feb 2021}}</ref> This was followed by a phase in which his statues of Isabel became stretched out; her limbs elongated.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/arts/design/20kino.html?pagewanted=all|title=Real Women Have Curves – The New York Times|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 November 2005|access-date=16 September 2019|last1=Kino|first1=Carol}}</ref>

Obsessed with creating his sculptures exactly as he envisioned through his unique view of reality, he often carved until they were as thin as nails and reduced to the size of a pack of cigarettes, much to his consternation. A friend of his once said that if Giacometti decided to sculpt you, "he would make your head look like the blade of a knife".
[[File:Alberto Giacometti, par sa femme Annette © Succession Alberto Giacometti (Fondation Giacometti, Paris + ADAGP, Paris) 2019.jpg|thumb|upright 1.4|Giacometti sculpting his wife Annette]]
During World War II, Giacometti took refuge in Switzerland. There, in 1946, he met Annette Arm, a secretary for the [[Red Cross]]. They married in 1949.<ref name="annette">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en/article/303/tribute-to-annette-giacometti|title=Fondation Giacometti – TRIBUTE TO ANNETTE GIACOMETTI|first=Fondation|last=Giacometti|website=www.fondation-giacometti.fr|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>

After his marriage his tiny sculptures became larger, but the larger they grew, the thinner they became. For the remainder of Giacometti's life, Annette was his main female model.<ref name="annette" /> His paintings underwent a parallel procedure. The figures appear isolated and severely attenuated, as the result of continuous reworking.

He frequently revisited his subjects: one of his favourite models was his younger brother Diego, with whom he shared his studio in Paris.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Amadour |date=23 May 2023 |title=Designer Ingrid Donat Opens Her Art-Filled Home in Paris |url=https://galeriemagazine.com/designer-ingrid-donat-opens-art-filled-home-le-marais/ |access-date=31 December 2023 |website=Galerie |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |title='Seated Man', Alberto Giacometti, 1949 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/giacometti-seated-man-n05909 |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Later years ==
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. Nor had he ever laid eyes on an actual skyscraper", according to his biographer James Lord.<ref>James Lord, Giacometti: A Biography, [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]], New York, 1986, pp. 331–332 {{ISBN|978-0-374-52525-5}}</ref> Giacometti's work on the project resulted in the four figures of standing women—his largest sculptures—entitled ''Grande femme debout'' I through IV (1960). The commission was never completed, however, because Giacometti was unsatisfied by the relationship between the sculpture and the site, and abandoned the project.

In 1962, Giacometti was awarded the grand prize for sculpture at the [[Venice Biennale]], and the award brought with it worldwide fame.

<gallery mode="packed" widths=200 heights=200 caption="Artworks by Giacometti at the 31st [[Venice Biennale]] in 1962, photographed by [[Paolo Monti]]">
Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Venezia, 1962) - BEIC 6328561.jpg
Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Venezia, 1962) - BEIC 6328562.jpg
</gallery>

Even when he had achieved popularity and his work was in demand, he still reworked models, often destroying them or setting them aside to be returned to years later. The prints produced by Giacometti are often overlooked but the catalogue raisonné, ''Giacometti – The Complete Graphics and 15 Drawings by Herbert Lust'' (Tudor 1970), comments on their impact and gives details of the number of copies of each print. Some of his most important images were in editions of only 30 and many were described as rare in 1970.

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 traveled to the United States in 1965 for an exhibition of his works at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York. As his last work he prepared the text for the book ''Paris sans fin'', a sequence of 150 [[lithographs]] containing memories of all the places where he had lived.

== Artistic analysis ==
[[File:Photograph of Alberto Giacometti by Cartier Bresson.jpg|thumb|upright 1.5|Alberto Giacometti<br />Photo by [[Henri Cartier-Bresson]]]]

Regarding Giacometti's sculptural technique and according to the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]: "The rough, eroded, heavily worked surfaces of Three Men Walking (II), 1949, typify his technique. Reduced, as they are, to their very core, these figures evoke lone trees in winter that have lost their foliage. Within this style, Giacometti would rarely deviate from the three themes that preoccupied him—the walking man; the standing, nude woman; and the bust—or all three, combined in various groupings''.''"<ref name="Metropolitan Museum of Art">{{cite web| url = http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/489978?rpp=20&pg=1&ao=on&ft=alberto+giacometti&pos=6| title = Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>

In a letter to [[Pierre Matisse]], Giacometti wrote: "Figures were never a compact mass but like a transparent construction".<ref name=MOMA>{{cite press release |title=Alberto Giacometti |year=1965|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago|location=Garden City, New York|url=http://www.moma.org/pdfs/docs/press_archives/3481/releases/MOMA_1965_0057_56.pdf?2010 |pages=14–28 }}</ref>  In the letter, Giacometti writes about how he looked back at the realist, classical busts of his youth with nostalgia, and tells the story of the existential crisis which precipitated the style he became known for.

"[I rediscovered] the wish to make compositions with figures. For this I had to make (quickly I thought; in passing), one or two studies from nature, just enough to understand the construction of a head, of a whole figure, and in 1935 I took a model. This study should take, I thought, two weeks and then I could realize my compositions...I worked with the model all day from 1935 to 1940...Nothing was as I imagined.  A head, became for me an object completely unknown and without dimensions."<ref name=MOMA />

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.

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 [[Deleuze]] calls "blocs of sensation" (as in Deleuze's analysis of [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]]). Even after his excommunication from the Surrealist group,{{Explain|date=March 2023}} while the intention of his sculpting was usually imitation, the end products were an expression of his emotional response to the subject. He attempted to create renditions of his models the way he saw them, and the way he thought they ought to be seen. He once said that he was sculpting not the human figure but "the shadow that is cast".

Philosopher [[William Barrett (philosopher)|William Barrett]], in ''[[Irrational Man|Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy]]'' (1962), says:

{{Blockquote |text=
Nothingness has, in fact, become one of the chief themes in modern art and literature, whether it is directly named as such or merely drifts through the work as the ambiance in which the human figures live, move, and have their being. We are reminded of the elongated and attenuated figures of the sculptor Giacometti, figures that seem to be invaded by the surrounding void.
|source=Chapter 3: The Testimony of Modern Art[https://archive.org/details/irrationalmans00barr/page/62/mode/2up?q=giacometti]
}}

A 2011–2012 exhibition at the [[Pinacothèque de Paris]] focused on showing how Giacometti was inspired by [[Etruscan art]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=GIACOMETTI ET LES ÉTRUSQUES - Pinacothèque de Paris |url=https://www.pinacotheque.com/giacometti-et-les-etrusques/ |access-date=4 July 2024 |website=Pinacothèque de Paris}}</ref>

[[File:'Cat' by Giacometti, 1954, Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|centre|upright 2.2|''Cat'', 1954, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]]

=== ''Walking Man'' and other human figures ===

{{Quote box |align=right |width=50% |author=Alberto Giacometti |source= [https://archive.org/details/bwb_KN-447-777/page/n15/mode/2up?q=%22All+the+sculptures+of+today%22 ''Giacometti: Sculptures''] by Raoul-Jean Moulin (Methuen, 1964) |quote=
All the sculptures of today, like those of the past, will end one day in pieces...So it is important to fashion one's work carefully in its smallest recess and charge every particle of matter with life.}}

Giacometti is best known for the bronze sculptures of tall, thin human figures, made in the years 1945 to 1960.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Feigel|first=Lara|title=On the edge of madness: the terrors and genius of Alberto Giacometti|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/21/the-terrors-genius-of-alberto-giacometti-artist-sculptor-tate-modern|access-date=5 January 2021|website=theguardian|date=21 April 2017}}</ref> Giacometti was influenced by the impressions he took from the people hurrying in the big city. People in motion he saw as "a succession of moments of stillness".<ref>{{Cite web|title=ALBERTO GIACOMETTI FONDS HÉLÈNE & EDOUARD LECLERC|url=https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en/event/36/alberto-giacometti|website=Fondation-giacometti}}</ref>

The emaciated figures are often interpreted as an expression of the existential fear, insignificance and loneliness of mankind.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Walking Man |url=https://www.aaronartprints.org/giacometti-walkingman.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801082752/https://www.aaronartprints.org/giacometti-walkingman.php |archive-date=1 August 2021 |access-date=5 January 2021 |website=Aaron art prints}}</ref> The mood of fear in the period of the 1940s and the Cold War is reflected in this figure. It feels sad, lonely and difficult to relate to.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sidelnikova|first=Anna|title=Walking man II|url=https://arthive.com/albertogiacometti/works/382560~Walking_man_II|website=Arthive.com}}</ref>

== Death ==
[[File:Alberto Giacometti (1901 - 1966), peintre et sculpteur, CP1337.jpg|thumb|upright 1.6]]
Giacometti died in 1966 of heart disease ([[pericarditis]]) and [[chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]] at the Kantonsspital in [[Chur]], Switzerland. His body was returned to his birthplace in Borgonovo, where he was [[interred]] close to his parents.

With no children, Annette Giacometti became the sole holder of his property rights.<ref name="annette" /> She worked to collect a full listing of authenticated works by her late husband, gathering documentation on the location and manufacture of his works and working to fight the rising number of counterfeited works. When she died in 1993, the [[Fondation Giacometti]] was set up by the French state.

In May 2007 the executor of his widow's estate, former French foreign minister [[Roland Dumas]], was convicted of illegally selling Giacometti's works to a top auctioneer, Jacques Tajan, who was also convicted. Both were ordered to pay €850,000 to the [https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation].<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 May 2007 |title=Conviction Upheld Against former French FM in Giacometti Fraud |url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/25058/conviction-upheld-against-former-french-fm-in-giacometti-fraud/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215112419/http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/25058/conviction-upheld-against-former-french-fm-in-giacometti-fraud/ |archive-date=15 December 2008 |access-date=16 April 2008}}</ref>

== Legacy ==

=== Exhibitions ===
[[File:Untitled (Landscape in Rome).jpeg|thumb|''Untitled (Landscape in Rome)'' (1920–21), [[The Phillips Collection]]]]
Giacometti's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including the [[High Museum of Art]], Atlanta (1970); [[Centre Pompidou]], Paris (2007–2008); [[Pushkin Museum]], Moscow ''"The Studio of Alberto Giacometti: Collection of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti"'' (2008); [[Kunsthal]] Rotterdam (2008); [[Fondation Beyeler]], Basel (2009); Buenos Aires (2012); [[Kunsthalle Hamburg]] (2013); [[Pera Museum]], Istanbul (2015); [[Tate Modern]], London (2017);<ref>{{cite web |title=Alberto Giacometti – press release |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/alberto-giacometti |website=Tate |access-date=16 March 2022}}</ref> [[Vancouver Art Gallery]], ''"Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time"'' (2019); [[National Gallery of Ireland]], Dublin (2022).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://vanartgallery.bc.ca/exhibitions/alberto-giacometti-a-line-through-time|title=Alberto Giacometti: A line through time: June 16, 2019 – September 29, 2019|access-date=16 September 2019|website=Vancouver Art Gallery}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandgardens/arid-40849877.html|title=Giacometti at the National Gallery is a must-see|first=Des|last=O’Sullivan|date=16 April 2022|website=Irish Examiner}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thegloss.ie/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-giacometti-exhibition/|title=All You Need To Know About The New Giacometti Exhibition|first=Penny|last=McCormick|date=8 April 2022|website=The Gloss Magazine}}</ref>

The [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], London's first solo exhibition of Giacometti's work, ''Pure Presence'' opened to five star reviews on 13 October 2015 (to 10 January 2016, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of the artist's death).<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Jonathan|title=Giacometti: Pure Presence review – the most profound, universal art of the past 75 years|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/13/giacometti-pure-presence-review-national-portrait-gallery|access-date=13 October 2015|work=Guardian online|date=13 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Luke|first1=Ben|title=Giacometti: Pure Presence, exhibition review: Profound portrait of the artist's progress|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/giacometti-pure-presence-exhibition-review-profound-portrait-of-the-artist-s-progress-a3089201.html|access-date=13 October 2015|work=Evening Standard online|date=13 October 2015}}</ref>
From April 2019, the [[Prado Museum]] in Madrid, has been highlighting Giacometti in an exhibition.

=== Public collections ===
Giacometti's work is displayed in numerous public collections, including:
{{div col}}
* [[Albright-Knox Art Gallery]], [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]]
* [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
* [[Baltimore Museum of Art]], [[Baltimore]], Maryland
* [[Bechtler Museum of Modern Art]], [[Charlotte, North Carolina]]
* [[Berggruen Museum]], Berlin
* [[Botero Museum]], [[Bogotá, Colombia]]
* [[Bündner Kunstmuseum]] Chur, Switzerland
* [[Carnegie Museum of Art]], [[Pittsburgh]]
* [[Detroit Institute of Arts]]
* [[Beyeler Foundation|Fondation Beyeler]], Basel
* [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]], Washington D.C.
* [[Holstebro]], Denmark
* [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], Los Angeles, California
* [[Johnson Museum of Art]], [[Cornell University]]
* [[Kunsthaus Zürich]]
* [[Kunstmuseum Basel]]
* [[Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art]], [[South Korea]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://leeum.samsungfoundation.org/html_eng/exhibition/exhibition_view.asp|title=Exhibition|publisher=leeum.samsungfoundation.org|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>
* [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]]
* [[Louisiana Museum of Modern Art]], Denmark
* [[Minneapolis Institute of Art]]
* [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York
* [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]
* [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington D.C.
* [[National Gallery of Canada]], Ottawa
* [[North Carolina Museum of Art]], [[Raleigh, North Carolina]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ncartmuseum.org/artist/alberto-giacometti|title=Artist: Alberto Giacometti – North Carolina Museum of Art|website=ncartmuseum.org|access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref>
* [[Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts]], [[University of East Anglia]]
* [[Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art]], Scottsdale, Arizona
* [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], New York
* [[Tate]], London
* [[Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art]], Iran
* [[University of Michigan Museum of Art]]
* [[Wadsworth Atheneum]], [[Hartford]]
* [[Walker Art Center]], [[Minneapolis]]
*[[Vancouver Art Gallery]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019|title=ALBERTO GIACOMETTI: A LINE THROUGH TIME|url=https://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/exhibitions/alberto-giacometti-a-line-through-time|website=Vanartgallery}}</ref>
*[[Yale University Art Gallery]], [[New Haven]]
{{div col end}}

=== Art foundations ===
The [[Fondation Alberto et Annette 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. A public interest institution, the Foundation was created in 2003 and aims at promoting, disseminating, preserving and protecting Alberto Giacometti's work.

The Alberto-Giacometti-Stiftung<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.giacometti-stiftung.ch/|title=Alberto Giacometti Stiftung: root|website=www.giacometti-stiftung.ch|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref> established in Zürich in 1965, holds a smaller collection of works acquired from the collection of the Pittsburgh industrialist [[G. David Thompson]].

=== Notable sales ===
[[File:E Wehrmann - Alberto Giacomett in Venedig (1962) cropped.jpg|thumb|Alberto Giacometti at the 31st Venice Biennale, 1962]]
According to record Giacometti has sold the two [[List of most expensive sculptures|most expensive sculptures]] in history.

In November 2000 a Giacometti bronze, ''Grande Femme Debout I'', sold for [[United States dollar|$]]14.3 million.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/international/story/0,,395302,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Art record Picasso painting goes for £39m at auction | date=10 November 2000 | access-date=23 April 2010}}</ref> ''Grande Femme Debout II'' was bought by the [[Gagosian Gallery]] for $27.4 million at [[Christie's]] auction in New York City on 6 May 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJ-nuOHmXSBq7_MFQrllsC6jrt4A|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512060740/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJ-nuOHmXSBq7_MFQrllsC6jrt4A|url-status=dead|title=Afp.google.com, Monet fetches record price at New York auction|archive-date=12 May 2008|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>

''[[L'Homme qui marche I]]'', a life-sized bronze sculpture of a man, became one of the most expensive works of art, and at the time was the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. It was in February 2010, when it sold for £65 million (US$104.3 million) at [[Sotheby's]], London.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8497287.stm|title=Sculpture fetches £65m at auction|date=5 February 2010|access-date=16 September 2019|via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=36031|title=Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man I Sells for a Record-Breaking $104,327,006 at Sotheby's|website=artdaily.com|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref> ''[[Grande tête mince]]'', a large bronze bust, sold for $53.3 million just three months later.
{{multiple image
 | align     = right
 | direction = horizontal
 | header    =
 | header_align = left/right/center
 | header_background =
 | footer    =
 | footer_align = left/right/center
 | footer_background =
 | width     =
 | image1    = CHF100 8 front.jpg
 | width1    = 100
 | caption1  = 100 [[Swiss franc]] banknote 1998–2019, front
 | alt1      = A banknote with portrait of Giacometti
 | image2    = CHF100 8 back.jpg
 | width2    = 100
 | caption2  = 100 Swiss franc banknote, back
 | alt2      = A banknote with image of sculpture of Giacometti
}}
''[[L'Homme au doigt]]'' (''Pointing Man'') sold for $126 million (£81,314,455.32), or $141.3 million with fees, in Christie's May 2015, "Looking Forward to the Past" sale in New York City. The work had been in the same private collection for 45 years.<ref>{{cite news|title=Two Artworks Top $100 Million Each at Christie's Sale (Artsbeat blog)|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/two-art-works-top-100-million-each-at-christies-sale/|first1=Scott | last1=Reyburn |access-date=12 May 2015|newspaper=New York Times|date=11 May 2015}}</ref> As of now it is the most expensive sculpture sold at auction.

After being showcased on the BBC programme ''[[Fake or Fortune]]'', a plaster sculpture, titled ''Gazing Head'', sold in 2019 for half a million pounds.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/22/worthless-sculpture-bbcs-fake-fortune-actually-priceless-giacometti/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/22/worthless-sculpture-bbcs-fake-fortune-actually-priceless-giacometti/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title='Worthless' sculpture from BBC's Fake or Fortune proves to be authentic Giacometti worth more than £500,000|first=Dalya|last=Alberge|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=23 August 2019|access-date=16 September 2019|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In April 2021, Giacometti's small-scale bronze sculpture, Nu debout II (1953), was sold from a Japanese private collection and went for £1.5 million ($2 million), against an estimate of £800,000 ($1.1 million).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Villa|first=Angelica|date=15 April 2021|title=$34.2 M. Phillips London Sale Brings Tunji Adeniyi-Jones Record and Air of Optimism|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/phillips-london-tunji-adenjiyi-jones-jean-dubuffet-results-1234589900/|access-date=17 April 2021|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Other legacy ===
Giacometti created the monument on the grave of [[Gerda Taro]] at [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]].<ref>Robert Whelan, "Robert Capa, the definitive collection", p. 8, [[Phaidon Press|Phaidon press]] 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-7148-4449-7}}</ref>

According to a lecture by [[Michael Peppiatt]] at Cambridge University on 8 July 2010, Giacometti, who had a friendship with author/playwright [[Samuel Beckett]], created a tree for the [[Theatrical scenery|set]] of a 1961 Paris production of ''[[Waiting for Godot]]''.

Giacometti and his sculpture ''L'Homme qui marche I'' appear on the former [[Banknotes of Switzerland|100 Swiss franc banknote]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.snb.ch/de/iabout/cash/current/design/id/cash_current_design_100|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127092859/http://snb.ch/de/iabout/cash/current/design/id/cash_current_design_100|url-status=dead|title=Schweizer Nationalbank|archive-date=27 January 2010|access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref>

In 2001 he was included in the ''[[Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000]]'' exhibition held at the [[National Portrait Gallery (England)|National Portrait Gallery]], London.

Giacometti's sculptural style has featured in advertisements for various financial institutions, starting in 1987 with the ''Shoes'' ad for [[Royal Bank of Scotland]] directed by [[Gerry Anderson]].<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC – h2g2 – 'Shoes' – the Royal Bank of Scotland Advert |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb6music/A823376 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216082520/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb6music/A823376 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 December 2023 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |access-date=16 December 2023}}</ref><ref>Readings in Popular Culture: trivial pursuits?; edited by Gary Day; Macmillan; London; 1990</ref>

The 2017 movie ''[[Final Portrait]]'' retells the story of his friendship with the biographer [[James Lord (author)|James Lord]]. Giacometti is played by [[Geoffrey Rush]].

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== General sources ===
* Jacques Dupin (1962). ''Alberto Giacometti''. Paris, Maeght
* Reinhold Hohl (1971). ''Alberto Giacometti''. Stuttgart, [[Gerd Hatje]]
* Die Sammlung der Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung (1990). Zürich, Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft
* Alberto Giacometti (1991–92). ''Sculptures – peintures – dessins''. Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris
* [[Jean Soldini]] (1993). ''Alberto Giacometti. Le colossal, la mère, le sacré''. Lausanne, L'Age d'Homme
* [[David Sylvester]] (1996) ''Looking at Giacometti''. Henry Holt & Co.
* ''Alberto Giacometti 1901–1966''. Kunsthalle Wien, 1996
* [[James Lord (author)|James Lord]] (1997). ''Giacometti: A Biography''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
* Alberto Giacometti. ''Kunsthaus Zürich, 2001''. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2001–2002
* [[Yves Bonnefoy]] (2006). ''Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work''. New edition, Flammarion
* {{cite web |first=Andreas |last=Weiland |title=The Sculptures of Alberto Giacometti / Seen in the Kunsthal Rotterdam (Giacometti Exhibition, October 18, 2008 – February 8, 2009) |date=25 January 2009 |publisher=Art in Society |issue=10 |url=http://www.art-in-society.de/AS10/Giacometti-3/Giacometti.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527083108/http://www.art-in-society.de/AS10/Giacometti-3/Giacometti.html |archive-date=27 May 2013 |issn=1618-2154 }}
* {{cite book |first=Laurie |last=Wilson |year=2003 |title=Alberto Giacometti: Myth, Magic and the Man |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |url=http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300090374 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060914193026/http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300090374 |archive-date=14 September 2006 |isbn=0300090374}}

== Further reading ==
* ''Alberto Giacometti. L'espace et la force'', [[Jean Soldini]], Kimé (2016).
* ''[https://www.academia.edu/42888775/La_Cage_de_Giacometti La Cage de Giacometti]'', Hisato Kuriwaki, Université de Tokyo, via Academia.edu (2012), in French
* ''Alberto Giacometti'', [[Yves Bonnefoy]], Assouline Publishing (22 February 2011)
* ''In Giacometti's Studio'', Michael Peppiatt, Yale University Press (14 December 2010)
* ''Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work'', Yves Bonnefoy, New edition, Flammarion (2006)
* ''Giacometti: A Biography'', [[James Lord (author)|James Lord]], Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1997)
* ''Looking at Giacometti'', [[David Sylvester]], Henry Holt & Co. (1996)
* ''Alberto Giacometti'', Herbert Matter &  Mercedes Matter, Harry N Abrams (September 1987)
* ''A Giacometti Portrait'', James Lord, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1 July 1980)
* ''Alberto Giacometti'', Reinhold Hohl, H. N. Abrams (1972)
* ''Alberto Giacometti'', Reinhold Hohl, Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje (1971)
* ''Alberto Giacometti'', Jacques Dupin,  Paris, Maeght (1962)
* ''The Studio of Alberto Giacometti: Collection of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti'', Véronique Wiesinger (ed.), exh. cat., Paris: Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti/Centre Pompidou (2007) {{ISBN|978-2-84426-352-0}}
* "The Dream, the Sphinx, and the Death of T", Alberto Giacometti, [[X (magazine)|''X'' magazine]], Vol. 1, No. 1 (November 1959); ''An Anthology from X'' (Oxford University Press 1988).
* Jacobi, Carol. ''[https://www.francis-bacon.com/outofthecage Out of the Cage: The Art of Isabel Rawsthorne]'', London: The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing, Feb 2021 {{ISBN|978-0-50097-105-5}}
* {{cite magazine |first=Mercedes |last=Matter |title=A Life Spent in Pursuit of the Impossible |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|LIFE]] |date=28 January 1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEwEAAAAMBAJ&q=beauty&pg=PA54 |volume=60 |number=4 |pages=54–60 |issn=0024-3019 }}
* The Cube and the Face: Around a Sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, Didi-Huberman, Georges (2015).

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.fondation-giacometti.fr The Giacometti Foundation website] (www.fondation-giacometti.fr) (in English and French)
* [https://www.giacometti-stiftung.ch/ Alberto Giacometti Stiftung] (giacometti-stiftung.ch) (in English and German)
* {{SIKART|4000048}}
* {{Helveticat}}
* Works of Alberto Giacometti:
** [http://www.unesco.org/artcollection/DetailAction.do?&idOeuvre=1550&nouvelleLangue=en The UNESCO Works of Art Collection]
** {{MoMA artist|2141}}
** [http://smarthistory.org/blog/53/giacometti-city-square-1948-moma/ smARThistory: Giacometti's ''City Square''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001015453/http://smarthistory.org/blog/53/giacometti-city-square-1948-moma/ |date=1 October 2011 }}
* Life of Alberto Giacometti:
** [https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2001/giacometti/start/pdfs/Giacometti_Chronology.pdf Chronology of his life with illustrations] from the Museum of Modern Art
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090425143453/http://www.kunsthaus.ch/en/exhibitions/current/giacometti/?redirect_url=title%3DCy Exhibition at Kunsthaus Zürich from 27 February until 24 May 2009]
* [http://nga.gov.au/internationalprints/tyler/Default.cfm?MnuID=3&ArtistIRN=11719&List=True&CREIRN=11719&ORDER_SELECT=13&VIEW_SELECT=5&GrpNam=12&TNOTES=TRUE Alberto Giacometti in the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler Collection]
* {{FrenchSculptureCensus}}

{{Alberto Giacometti|state=expanded}}
{{Surrealism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giacometti, Alberto}}
[[Category:Alberto Giacometti| ]]
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Swiss male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Swiss sculptors]]
[[Category:Swiss modern sculptors]]
[[Category:People from Maloja District]]
[[Category:Sibling artists]]
[[Category:Swiss Protestants]]
[[Category:Swiss surrealist artists]]
[[Category:Swiss-Italian people]]