Artists
Alberto Giacometti
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b. 1901 and died 1966
Giacometti is considered a sculpture, draftsman and printmaker. He was known for his perfectionism and desire to constantly refine his artworks. No matter how long he spent on a sculpture or drawing he would go back and visit it and always find something to change.
Giacometti’s sculptures have come to be co-identified with existentialism and modernism, both of which were running rampant over Europe during the latter part of his career. He was originally identified with the Surrealist movement and his early career is clearly marked with surrealist influences and friends.
His sculptures can be broken down into two distinct phases. Before WWII he was primarily sculpting small, matchbox size sculptures of the human figure. Giacometti found that whenever he was using models he had difficulty of scale and always made them smaller and smaller. During WWII he had a revelation and began his large elongated sculptures that evoke the existential despair that war caused in the 20th century. Each figure appears isolated, lonely and passing by not only those on the street or other figures in his sculptures, but stranded in the human condition to which there is no solution.