Alberto GiacomettiAlberto Giacometti Figura1964
1964
About the Item
- Creator:Alberto Giacometti (1901 - 1966, Swiss)
- Creation Year:1964
- Dimensions:Height: 13 in (33.02 cm)Width: 9 in (22.86 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Washington, DC
- Reference Number:
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a painter, printmaker and furniture designer but he is best known as one of the 20th century’s most important sculptors. He is revered for the elongated, slender human figures he created in the years following World War II that reflected existentialism and the trauma associated with the conflict.
Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, Switzerland, in 1901 to a creative family. His father Giovanni was a Post-Impressionist painter, his godfather Cuno Amiet was a Fauvist painter, his brother Bruno was an architect, and his other brother Diego was an artist and furniture designer who also served as Giacometti’s model. (The sculptor worked chiefly with models plucked from his personal life.)
Beginning in 1922, Giacometti studied at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière in Paris and was influenced by the Cubist work of Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and the post-Cubist sculptures of Jacques Lipchitz and Henri Laurens.
During the 1930s, Giacometti designed furniture such as lamps, vases and wall décor to earn a living, often collaborating with interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, whose interiors tastefully mixed extravagance with sophisticated simplicity. However, Giacometti’s passion lay in creating sculptures.
Alberto and his brother Diego left Paris in 1940 to escape the Nazi invasion and spent time in the South of France before fleeing to Geneva, remaining there until 1946. In 1947, Giacometti began work on his most famous sculptures — very tall and thin figurines that came to be associated with frailty and loneliness.
Giacometti catapulted to fame in the United States following two exhibitions of his sculptures in 1948 and 1950 at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City — Jean-Paul Sartre authored the catalogue essay for the latter. In 1961, Giacometti’s friend, Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, asked him to design the set for a re-staging of his play “Waiting for Godot.” His response took on the form of a single plaster tree.
In 1962, Giacometti won the grand prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale, and for much of the rest of his career, he created modern paintings, drawings and sculptures of plaster, clay and bronze in his small Paris studio. He died in 1966.
Giacometti’s works continue to enthrall collectors. In 2010, his life-size bronze sculpture L'Homme qui marche (“the man who walks”), which now adorns the 100 Swiss Franc banknote, became one of the most expensive sculptures to be sold at auction.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Alberto Giacometti wall decorations, prints and sculptures.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Washington, DC
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Roy Lichtenstein Girl from 1¢ LifeBy Roy LichtensteinLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Roy Lichtenstein Title: Girl Portfolio: 1¢ Life Medium: Lithograph on white wove paper Date: 1963 Edition: 2000 Frame Size: 20 3/4" x 18 5/8" Sheet Size: 16 1/4" x 11 1/2" Im...Category
1960s Pop Art Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Paraphrase d'un Chant d'Enfant dans le Soir, from Poesies AntillaisesBy Henri MatisseLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Henri Matisse Title: Paraphrase d'un Chant d'Enfant dans le Soir Portfolio: Poesies Antillaises Medium: Lithograph Year: 1972 Edition: 250 Frame Size: 24" x 20 1/4" Sheet Siz...Category
1970s Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- D'Apres Longus, from Poesies AntillaisesBy Henri MatisseLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Henri Matisse Title: D'Apres Longus Portfolio: Poesies Antillaises Medium: Lithograph Year: 1972 Edition: 250 Sheet Size: 14 7/8" x 11 1/8" Image Size: 14 7/8" x 11 1/8" Sign...Category
1970s Post-Impressionist Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- La Voix Tintante, from Poesies AntillaisesBy Henri MatisseLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Henri Matisse Title: La Voix Tintante Portfolio: Poesies Antillaises Medium: Lithograph Year: 1972 Edition: 250 Sheet Size: 14 7/8" x 11 1/8" Image Siz...Category
1970s Post-Modern Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Iles, from Poesies AntillaisesBy Henri MatisseLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Henri Matisse Title: Iles Portfolio: Poesies Antillaises Medium: Lithograph Year: 1972 Edition: 250 Sheet Size: 14 7/8" x 11 1/8" Image Siz...Category
1970s Post-Impressionist Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Marine, from Poesies AntillaisesBy Henri MatisseLocated in Washington, DCArtist: Henri Matisse Title: Marine Portfolio: Poesies Antillaises Medium: Lithograph Year: 1972 Edition: 250 Frame Size: 24" x 20 1/4" Sheet Size: 14 7/8" x 11 1/8" Image Size: 14 3...Category
1970s Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- "French-Hunt" by SemBy SEMLocated in Bristol, CTClassic (framed) colour plate by 'Sem' aka Georges Grousat (1863-1934) depicting a french hunt w/ trompe de chasse (hunting horn) scene Image Sz: 17"H x 13"...Category
20th Century Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- SEATED SEAMSTRESS Signed Lithograph, Young Woman Measuring Tape Dress FormBy Raphael SoyerLocated in Union City, NJSEATED SEAMSTRESS is an original hand drawn (not digitally or photo reproduced) limited edition lithograph by the artist Raphael Soyer - Russian/American Social Realism Painter, 1899...Category
1970s Realist Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- GATHERING Signed Stone Lithograph, NYC Group Portrait Drawing, Light BrownBy Raphael SoyerLocated in Union City, NJGATHERING is an original hand drawn stone lithograph by Raphael Soyer, the renowned Russian-born American realist painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Hand proofed and printed in 1977...Category
1970s Realist Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- SLAVE TO FASHION, Signed Lithograph, City Woman Walking Dog, Animal Print CoatBy Robin MorrisLocated in Union City, NJSLAVE TO FASHION by the woman artist Robin Morris, is an original limited edition lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques(not a photo reproduction or digital print) on a...Category
1980s Art Deco Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- SEATED WOMAN PINK SOCKS Signed Lithograph, Female Portrait, Graphite DrawingBy Raphael SoyerLocated in Union City, NJSEATED WOMAN PINK SOCKS is an original hand drawn (not digitally or photo reproduced) limited edition lithograph by the artist Raphael Soyer - Russian/American Social Realism Painter...Category
1970s Realist Portrait Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Woman Walking Away from GentlemanBy Rudolf BauerLocated in New Orleans, LAA well dressed woman takes leave of a gentleman. Rudolf Bauer was born in 1889, in Lindenwald, Germany-Poland. The son of a wealthy engineer, Bauer became an essential part of the avant-garde movement and the birth of non-objective art in the early 1920's. Bauer began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1905, where he learned the fundamentals and produced beautifully stylized figurative drawings. In 1912, Bauer met Herwarth Walden, a promoter of the avant-garde movement and founder of Der Sturm Art Gallery. Bauer became a member of Der Sturm, and was represented in group exhibitions along with Kandinsky, Picasso, Chagall, Klee et al. By 1922, Bauer had participated in 80 Der Sturm exhibitions in Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy, et al. In 1917, Bauer had his first one-man show at Der Sturm Gallery, exhibiting 120 works. By 1921, with his many one-man and group exhibitions, and his significant publications of his theories on art, Bauer became Germany's leading abstract expressionist painter. In 1929, Bauer founded his own private museum, Das Geistreich-Bauer (The Realm of the Spirit). In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of the German Republic and with that modern art was branded as "sub-human". Walden closed Der Sturm and fled Germany. The purge of modern artists and curators began, but at the same time Bauer was having his work exhibited at the new Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Despite Hitler's proclamations of the "degeneracy" of modern art, Bauer continued his mission, the free expression in art, writing dictums and creating art. Meanwhile, Solomon R. Guggenheim, the famous American philanthropist, had been acquiring Bauer's work; so many pieces in fact that that he could no long fit his work within the confines of his residential suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York. In 1936, Guggenheim decided to exhibit his entire collection of Bauer's work in one venue, at the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery in Charleston, SC. Later that year, the famous Jeu de Paume, a division of the Louvre, in Paris, honored Bauer with a one-man exhibition. As a result of the show, the Louvre purchased one of Bauer's oil paintings. Upon his return from the show at Jeu de Paume, and despite the fact he was not Jewish, Bauer was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Filippo Marinetti...Category
Early 20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph