From Library Journal
The centenary of Alberto Giacometti's birth last year heralded a number of exhibitions of this much-beloved master's work. This title by Peppiatt (Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma) accompanies an eponymous show touring European museums, focusing on Giacometti's most productive and artistically mature years. The sculptor-painter spent the duration of World War II languishing in his native Switzerland, modeling plaster figures so profoundly attenuated that when he returned to a liberated Paris, he was able to smuggle three years' of work in matchboxes in his jacket pocket. Once he was happily reestablished in his tiny Montparnasse studio, the sculptor began making the tall, gaunt figures he's best known for today. Although lacking the comprehensive scope of the catalog of the 2001 Giacometti retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, this book distills the artist's most interesting aspects, making an already thoroughly examined life seem freshly compelling. This is achieved partly by including four pieces of the artist's own surreal essays and poetry, in which his struggle with his vision's clash with reality is foregrounded. One of the better titles available on this important 20th-century figure, this is recommended for academic and larger public library collections. Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Alberto Giacometti, one of the foremost artists of the twentieth century, created sculptures and paintings of stark and haunting beauty. Now, in the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, this book celebrates his genius, tracing his development from the tiny sculptures he made during World War II to the characteristically emaciated figures of his mature style. Michael Peppiatt gives a vivid account of the crucial moment when Giacometti returned from his wartime exile in Geneva to his beloved Paris, a city traumatized by the war but receptive to new movements and ideas. He describes how Giacometti's way of seeing life-and his way of working-underwent several dramatic transformations during this period. He sheds light on Giacometti's closest relationships at the time, not only with his lover, Isabel Delmer, his brother Diego, and his young wife, Annette, but also with his writer friends Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Samuel Beckett, and Jean Genet. Exploring the mainsprings of Giacometti's creativity, Peppiatt presents four key texts by the artist, translated into English for the first time, that poignantly describe and illuminate his deepest fears and obsessions. Using rarely seen photographs Peppiatt also discusses Giacometti's studio, which the artist regarded as a continual, indispensable source of stimulus. Richly illustrated with reproductions of Giacometti's sculptures, paintings, and drawings, the book sheds new light on his singular style of expression.
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