Skip to main content

Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Swiss, 1901-1966

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.

2
to
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Height
to
Width
to
2
1
1
2
2
60
126
77
37
37
Creator: Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti Framed Black and White Limited Lithograph "Annette", 1964
By Alberto Giacometti
Located in Studio City, CA
A wonderful sketched lithograph by famed Swiss artists/sculptor Alberto Giacometti. The lithograph was printed in Paris by Mourlot Freres in 1964 and was issued in an edition of ...
Category

1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

Selection of Modernist Lithographs or Gallery Wall
By (after) Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti
Located in Atlanta, GA
Selection of modernist lithographs or gallery wall, French, circa 1960s. From top left to right, they are: 1) Joan Miro color lithograph, from Derriere Le Miroir, circa 1960s. Seen at upper left. It measures 18.5" H x 25.5" W framed. Newly framed in clean lined black lacquer gallery frame under conservation grade glass. 2) SOLD Alberto Giacometti lithograph...
Category

1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Wood, Glass, Paper

Related Items
Alberto Giacometti Mid Century Modern The Search Collectors Guild Etching 20"
By Alberto Giacometti
Located in Dayton, OH
1960's original etching of "The Search" by Alberto Giacometti. The Collector's Guild Ltd. Certificate of Authenticty attached to back of frame. Plain wood frame with slightly raised bevel; no mat. "Alberto Giacometti (October 10, 1901-January 11, 1966) - The son of Swiss impressionist painter Giovanni Giacometti, he was born in Stampa in the Bregaglia Valley. He displayed a talent for painting art and sculpture at an early age and with his father's guidance he made his earliest drawings, paintings and sculpture using his family for models. By age ten he had progressed from a simple illustration of Snow White to a detailed copy of Rembrandt's Good Samaritan. His first bust, made when he was just thirteen, was of his younger brother, Diego, who would become his lifelong assistant. Alberto spent six months when he was eighteen as a student at the Ecole Des Arts et Metiers in Geneva. He visited Venice with his father where he first experienced paintings by Tintoretto. He stayed a short period in Italy, where he studied Byzantine Mosaics and Baroque architecture. On the way home they visited a church in Padua filled with frescoes by Giotto where he had his first experience with an almost hallucinatory vision giving him a challenge to portray the world according to his own desires rather than the conventional ones. He went to Paris in 1922 to study with Rodin's pupil Bourdelle and settled in the tiny Montparnasse studio where he worked the rest of his life. He allied with the surrealists, until he wearied of creating what he called "these mental reconstructions." He sought, through his sculpture, to probe for the essence of life, but was never satisfied with the search. During this period he started the usual figures and busts at typical sizes and after several months of work the figures had shrunk to the size of a pin. One of the great bohemians, Giacometti loved to haunt cafes until late at night. His dingy studio, lit by a dusty studio window and bare light bulbs, heated by a potbellied stove, was strewn with cigarette butts. He traveled little, except to Switzerland at Christmas and New Years. He left Paris in December 1941 for Switzerland, but Diego stayed behind in Paris to take care of the studio. Giacometti's extremely personal conception of space and figuration matured after the Second World War and he developed still further his elongated and isolated figures with a suggestion of existentialist tragedy, skeletal and emaciated groups which created their own spatial environment in a unique way. Between 1940 and 1945 he produced works on a miniature scale which nevertheless created a symbolic impression of magnitude. It was during the years in Geneva that he met Annette Arm. She moved in with him and abided by his request that she not change the way he lived. She became his model, his muse and after a few years, his wife. He continued to make nocturnal visits to cafes and to use prostitutes for his models. His personal life has been described (perhaps wrongly) as dealing with impotence, a foot fetish...
Category

1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

François Gilot Original Lithograph: Timeless Beauty in Classic Framing, 1951
By Françoise Gilot
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Introducing an exquisite François Gilot original lithograph from the pages of André Verdet's poetic masterpiece, "Pages d'Amour," published by editions Raison d'être in 1951 and prin...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

Custom Framed Lithograph by Marcel Vertes, Signed and Numbered
By Marcel Vertès
Located in Palm Desert, CA
This is a beautiful custom-framed lithograph by Hungarian-born French artist, Marcel Vertes, entitled "Circus Queens". The piece is signed, Vertes, in the lower right corner and numbered, "30/50" in the lower left corner. The image itself measures 23" high x 16" wide. The frame is a 2" thick 2 toned framed, black and a subtle cerused-like grey. It was originally sold through the Vincent Price...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Wood

François Gilot Original Lithograph: Timeless Beauty in Classic Framing, 1951
By Françoise Gilot
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Introducing an exquisite François Gilot original lithograph from the pages of André Verdet's poetic masterpiece, "Pages d'Amour," published by editions Raison d'être in 1951 and prin...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

François Gilot Original Lithograph: Timeless Beauty in Classic Framing, 1951
By Françoise Gilot
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Introducing an exquisite François Gilot original lithograph from the pages of André VERDET's poetic masterpiece, "Pages d'Amour," published by editions Raison d'être in 1951 and prin...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

François Gilot Original Lithograph: Timeless Beauty in Classic Framing, 1951
By Françoise Gilot
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Introducing an exquisite François Gilot original lithograph from the pages of André Verdet's poetic masterpiece, "Pages d'Amour," published by editions Raison d'être in 1951 and prin...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

Alberto Giacometti Lithograph Dessin 1, Circa 1960
By Alberto Giacometti
Located in Rochester, NY
After Alberto Giacometti - Dessin 1 - large format lithograph on rag paper in period giltwood frame under glass ( original old framers label on back - Empire Artist's Materials / 831...
Category

1960s Expressionist Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Glass, Giltwood, Paper

Alberto Giacometti 'Annette De Face' Etching, 1955
By Alberto Giacometti
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Wonderful etching 'Annette De Face' by Alberto Giacometti in 1955, original black and white etching, framed with matte behind glass. This is an unsigned, unnumbered impression from t...
Category

1950s European Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

Gene Davis Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Color Field Lithograph 1972
By Gene Davis
Located in Dallas, TX
Gene Davis Large Scale Lithograph on Archival paper Signed and numbered in pencil. Titled Yankee Doodle and executed in 1972. Original frame ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

François Gilot Original Lithograph: Timeless Beauty in Classic Framing, 1951
By Françoise Gilot
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Introducing an exquisite François Gilot original lithograph from the pages of André VERDET's poetic masterpiece, "Pages d'Amour," published by editions Raison d'être in 1951 and prin...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

Alberto Giacometti after "Caroline" Offset Print, 1965
By Alberto Giacometti
Located in Vienna, AT
Print by Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901-1966) titled "Caroline". The figure's formality and disproportionately small head are hallmark characteristics of Alberto Giacometti's portr...
Category

1960s Swiss Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

François Gilot Lithograph, 1951
By Françoise Gilot
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
François Gilot original lithograph. From the poetry book "Pages d'Amour" by André VERDET, editions Raison d'être, 1951, printed by Mourlot limited in 366 copies. Made in France, c...
Category

1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper

François Gilot Lithograph, 1951
François Gilot Lithograph, 1951
H 18.31 in W 15.95 in D 0.79 in

Alberto Giacometti contemporary art for sale on 1stDibs.

Alberto Giacometti contemporary art are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of paper and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Alberto Giacometti contemporary art, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original contemporary art by Alberto Giacometti were created in the mid-century modern style in france during the 1960s. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider contemporary art by Françoise Gilot, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso. Prices for Alberto Giacometti contemporary art can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $750 and can go as high as $1,245, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $998.
Questions About Alberto Giacometti Contemporary Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Alberto Giacometti is most famous for his sculptures depicting human figures in an iconic tall, thin style. Influenced by Surrealism and Cubism, his style also sought to invoke a sense of distance in the viewer. On 1stDibs, find an array of beautiful Alberto Giacometti pieces from some of the top sellers around the world.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Alberto Giacometti worked with clay or plaster to form and shape his sculptures. Once they were completed, many of them were cast in bronze. He enjoyed experimenting with different styles, materials and approaches. While you’ll find a lot of bronze sculptures, there are other works of art that include plaster, clay and paint in his collections. Shop a selection of Alberto Giacometti pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Alberto Giacometti is a Swiss sculptor, painter and printmaker, working mainly in Paris. His work was influenced by the cubism, surrealist and expressionist movements. Shop a selection of Alberto Giacometti pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Alberto Giacometti made hundreds of sculptures out of a variety of materials. Some of his most frequently used ones were plaster, wood and terracotta, but he is perhaps best known for his bronze sculptures. On 1stDibs, find a collection of Alberto Giacometti art.
  • 1stDibs ExpertFebruary 21, 2024
    In his artwork, Alberto Giacometti tried to capture the energy of his figures as well as his own memories, emotional state and view of the world. 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. The very tall and thin figurines depicted in works like L’Homme au doigt, Standing Woman and The Chariot came to be associated with frailty and loneliness. On 1stDibs, shop an assortment of Alberto Giacometti art.

Recently Viewed

View All