Alberto Giacometti - A Biography Of His Work

<div>Although Alberto Giacometti has long been recognized as one of the most original artists of the twentieth century, his life and work have not been the subject of a large illustrated monograph for many years. Yves Bonnefoy, poet, essayist and fri end of the artist, has been reflecting on Giacometti s work since their first meeting, and began working on this book in 1981 while giving a series of lectures at the College de France. Yves Bonnefoy examines the entire range of Giacometti s creativ e production: sculpture, painting, drawing, which was the basis of the artist s work, and his lithographs-among the finest produced in this century. By focusing on the works of art themselves rather than on the details of the artist s life, and by r el ying on the evidence of Giacometti s important writings and statements, the author reveals the psychological and intellectual context of Giacometti s inspiration, and provides a wealth of new interpretations of his drawings, canvases and sculpture s.< br><br>Giacometti s early artistic development within his family circle, the impact of his voyages to Italy, the nature of his early apprenticeship in Antoine Bourdelle s studio in Paris, and his interest in African and Oceanian arts are traced w ith the help of contemporary accounts. Bonnefoy attributes great importance to Georges Bataille s thinking-re-evaluated here-and its influence on Giacometti s work, together with that of surrealism and the ideas of Andre Breton, whose relationship w ith t he artist is analyzed. The periods that constituted the most significant moments of Giacometti s life are explored, especially his return to the study of the human figure in 1935, the <i>Walking Man </i>series in 1947, and the period of his stu dy of heads both in painting and sculpture during the 1950s. Bonnefoy s reflection on Giacometti s creative world leads him to raise important questions about the secret and profound relationship that an artist born in the mountains maintained wit h light