Book Description
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 friend 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 creative 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 relying 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 sculptures.
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 with 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 with the 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 Walking Man series in 1947, and the period of his study 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 with light, one that Giacometti sought to relive through his emotive landscapes.
In writing Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work Yves Bonnefoy benefited from documentary and photographic assistance from Annette Giacometti and other members of the artist's family, friends, and the galleries that exhibited his work. This study, therefore, evokes not only Giacometti's oeuvre, but also his childhood and later environment, his studios and the works that were important to him.
Bonnefoy's penetrating analysis of Giacometti's work throws much new light on issues central to the understanding of twentieth-century art as a whole. Accompanied by an extensive biographical chronology and bibliography and illustrated with nearly 60 works and documents, many of which are published here for the first time, this monograph will remain an essential for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Best book on one of true greats.......2007-01-10
Alberto Giacometti gave Western art perhaps the most persuasive and comprehensive view of the state of being human post WW2; eroded to its core yet still possessing the intelligence to think it way out of the mess it constantly makes for itself.
Yves Bonnefoy's book Giacometti is the definitive work on this artist and should be compulsory reading for anyone contemplating becoming a contemporary artist as it contains all the clues that would alow someone to understand such essential things as integrity and the balancing act between idea and artistry.
Giacometti: Alienation and estrangement.......2004-03-23
Alberto Giacometti is among my favorite 20th century sculptors -- his semi-representational sculptures are powerful and expressive of the alienation and estrangement of the human condition.
That's a good book!.......2001-10-22
After i review it and i'll type what i feel!
Average customer rating:
- A Great Artist -- A Ridiculous Book
- The other ratings on this page are too high
- A meticulous, scholarly, seminal body of work
- Wilson's Giacometti and the vital necessity of art
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Alberto Giacometti: Myth, Magic, and the Man
Laurie Wilson
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0300113366 |
Book Description
Alberto Giacometti, one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, was also one of the most enigmatic. In this major new interpretation of Giacometti and his work, art historian and psychoanalyst Laurie Wilson demonstrates how the artist's secret beliefs and emotional scars are reflected in his evocative sculpture, drawings, and paintings.
Wilson's Giacometti was an extremely imaginative child who entwined fantasy and real-life experiences. As he matured, the artist combined fact and fancy into evolving myths, part conscious and part unconscious. Drawing on biographical data uncovered during a decade of research, Wilson reconstructs traumatic events and issues in Giacometti's life—including family births and deaths in early childhood, world wars and their aftermath, and his intense and ambivalent relationship with his parents—and examines their profound effects on his artistic evolution. These startling new interpretations will forever change the way we understand both the man and his work.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Artist -- A Ridiculous Book .......2006-10-25
The author is an 'art historian and psychoanalyst.' That should make you suspicious immediately. Wilson ignores what Giacometti said about his work and his life and posits absurd Freudian mumbo-jumbo to explain this complex man of genius. For example, Giacometti told biographer James Lord that he did not have homosexual desires. Indeed, Lord (an openly gay man himself)found no evidence whatsoever that Giacometti was not hetrosexual. But Wilson manufactures absurd reasons to insist that he was, in line with Freudian doctrine: Freudians insist, of course, that someone like Giacometti (or you or me) does not really know himself -- only the analyst can uncover the unconscious drives behind our every thought and move. What is amazing is not that a small group of psychoanalysts survives, but that the Viennese quack's nonsense is believed at all today.
As another reviewer pointed out, Wilson's leaps of logic (illogic, really) make her case -- and her book -- ridiculous. There are fine books on Giacometti out there -- Lord's biography is a good starting point -- read those instead.
The other ratings on this page are too high.......2006-04-05
I have been doing extensive research on Giacometti, and this is one of the worst books I have come across. The author clearly has done a good deal of research, and this book may be good for you if you can weed out her ridiculous leaps of logic. She seems almost obsessed with demonstrating his sexual deviancy, at times in excrutiating ways. Besides the absurd psychoanalytic portrait she portrays (which is probably the basis for her contrived leaps in logic), the writing is pompous and pretentiously self assured. Here are some gems:
"Head of a Man on a Rod is usually discussed in terms of the terror Giacometti felt when he saw the Dutchman die...but the cavernously open mouth of the work may also convey unconscious homoerotic longings to be orally penetrated."
"After the failure of Giacometti's much publicized attempt to develop a mutually satisfying loving relationship with a woman...he split all womankind into two. Women could either be idealized, untouchable figures with whom he could have intellectual exchanges on the model of his mother; or they could be subordinates who he could dominate..."
"Giacometti's uneasiness with touching could also help explain his artistic preferences...Giacometti had not been well held as an infant or young boy, and it might have been too painful to see hands holding children with loving gestures"
A meticulous, scholarly, seminal body of work.......2003-11-17
Laurie Wilson (Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center, New York Center) has written the definitive biography of the skilled and talented artist Alberto Giacometti: Myth, Magic, And The Man. Tracing Giacometti's roots from his imaginative childhood the traumas in his early life, to surviving the hardships of world wars, and the effects of his life experiences on the nature, theme, and interplay of his art, Alberto Giacometti: Myth, Magic, And The Man offers a excellent wealth of documented insights into the creation and message behind one man's great art. Alberto Giacometti is a meticulous, scholarly, seminal body of work which is especially recommended for academic library collections.
Wilson's Giacometti and the vital necessity of art.......2003-10-18
This biographical work is an exquisite study of the artist and of the vital necessity of his work to himself and to us, his audience. Wilson traces his life with a sensitivity that matches its history of loss and trauma while weaving it into an emotionally attuned connection to his work. The effect is an indelibly affecting portrait of this quintessential 20th century artist. This portrayal blends the best traditions of the psychoanalytic method of examining a life with appreciation of the artist's work on aesthetic and art historical grounds. The author brings to it a richly textured language, which avoids the possible pitfalls of formulaic interpreting, and instead brings to life the artist's personal and artistic existence. This feels particularly satisfying because it echoes Giacometti's own accomplishment: a rendering of human fragility and yet transcending it, and helping us transcend it through art.
Book Description
Winner of a Venice Bienniale Golden Lion Award, Looking at Giacometti is a compelling mixture of biography and criticism, including an extraordinary interview with Giacometti.
Written over a period of forty years, Looking at Giacometti is a profound response to the art of one of modernism’s greatest sculptors. It takes students from world-renowned art critic David Sylvester’s first visits to Giacometti’s studio in the late 1940s to the author’s prolonged sitting for the artist’s portrait of him in the 1960 and reflections on his complete oeuvre after Giacometti’s death. A compelling mixture of biography and criticism, and including a sixteen-page insert of black and white photographs by Patricia Matisse, this book sheds new light on twentieth-century art and thought.
Customer Reviews:
an exceptional work of criticism.......2002-05-12
This short volume betrays the late David Sylvester's masterful understanding not only of his subject, but of modernist aesthetics overall.
"Looking at Giacometti" documents the way an extraordinary analytical mind came to understand a critical modern artist. The book has a tripartite structure: the first five essays were written while its subject was living; the next five offer a retrospective view of the artist and his work; and the final chapter, written during the 1980s, offers yet another perspective. With each successive chapter, Sylvester's understanding of Giacometti's work deepens, and his passionate, probing curiosity leads him to greater insights.
Of course, Sylvester may be remembered most as a sensitive interviewer (cf. his brilliant interviews with Francis Bacon, his probing Duchamp interview, and his book of BBC interviews with American artists); but his criticism -- particularly on Giacometti and Bacon -- remains exemplary, and indispensible.
This brief but exceptionally insightful study of Giacometti's work is highly recommended to anyone interested in modern art -- and to anyone hoping to write precise, incisive art criticism.
First Rate Study Of Alberto Giacometti.......2000-12-03
One of the best studies of Giacometti available in English, written by a a professional critic who knew, interviewed, and even posed for a portrait by Giacometti. It covers all of Giacometti's artistic periods, his work as both painter and sculptor, and takes into account his writings, to produce a detailed and nuanced portrait of the artist and his work. And, it's especially refreshing to read a book about Giacometti that focuses more on his work than his personality.
As a general introduction to Giacometti, Sylvester's book is far superior to James Lord's overrated "A Giacometti Portrait," and is much more useful than Lord's biography, if you want to understand what Giacometti was trying to accomplish. This book is obviously not as exhaustive as Bonnefoy's enormous study on the subject (160 pages versus 574), but Sylvester's analysis is sharper and more hard-headed.
The photographs of Giacometti's work are limited and rather poor in quality, and none are in color. You'd have to go to the Scheider or Bonnefoy studies of Giacometti for reproductions. But for a serious analysis of Giacometti's work as it developed over his career, read Sylvester.
Portrait of an artist.......2000-12-02
This excellent volume offers an in-depth look at the evolution of Alberto Giacometti's sculpture and painting. Having often visited Giaometti's Paris studio during the last twelve years of the artist's life, the author is able to provide an intimate portrait of one of the major figures of 20th century art and presents a comprehensive, analytical survey of the artist's work. Included is an extensive interview with Giacometti from 1965 and sixteen of Patricia Matisse's black-and-white photographs of the artist's work and studio. The author explores the artist's interest in the process of objectifying reality, the question of how art is perceived, and how Giacometti's work is related to the work of other modern artists. In so doing, he has written a book that is valuable not only for the study of Giacometti's paintings and sculpture but also for a deeper understanding of modern art as a whole.
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Giacometti: A Biography In Pictures
Alberto Giacometti
Manufacturer: Hatje Cantz Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 377570793X
Release Date: 1999-05-02 |
Book Description
Paragraph-long quotations, from the artist and others, about Giacometti's life and artistic struggles... [have] been arranged chronologically and interspersed with some interesting snapshots of him at work in the studio (a Gitane invariably gripped in his plaster-stippled fingers) and reproductions of individual works.... An engaging read.--Library Journal
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Mythic Giacometti
James Lord
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Binding: Hardcover
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Giacometti: A Biography
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A Giacometti Portrait
ASIN: 0374218803 |
Book Description
The Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) was arguably the greatest sculptor of the twentieth century. He was also--as James Lord persuasively argued in Giacometti: A Biography--a heroic figure whose vocation sustained him through a life of crippling anxiety and erotic guilt.
Almost twenty years after it first appeared, Giacometti has attained the status of a classic, one of the most candid and complete biographies of an artist in our time. In Mythic Giacometti, Lord reveals the hidden "blueprint" of that work: a daringly literal, visionary interpretation of the myth of Oedipus as it affected the conduct and outcome of Giacometti's life. The result is a case study both in the development of an artist and in the writing of biography. Lord concentrates on the private totems of Giacometti's life-family legend, childhood memory,
illness and injury, crucial sexual encounters, intimations of mortality-that amounted, in Lord's view, to signs of a tragic destiny directly linked to the central tragedy of Western literature.
Amazon.com
James Lord met Swiss-born sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) in 1952, when he had moved beyond the mysterious surrealist works that first won him fame (The Palace at 4 A.M.) to the spookily attenuated figures that made him a preeminent profiler of existential unease. Lord astutely chronicles this transformation, and the evaluation of Giacometti's formidable personality is notable for its sensitive delineation of his ambivalent feelings toward women. Without scanting the sculptor's tragic view of life, the author also inspires exhilaration with his portrait of a man who was always true to his art.
Book Description
The work of one of the towering creative spirits of the century, Alberto Giacometti's visionary sculptures and paintings from a testament to the artist's intriguing life story. From modest beginnings in a Swiss village, Giacometti went on to flourish in the picturesque milieu of prewar Paris and then to achieve international acclaim in the fifties and sixties. Picasso, Balthus, Samuel Beckett, Stravinsky and Sartre have parts in his story, along with flamboyant art dealers, whores, shady drifters, unscrupulous collectors, poets and thieves. Women were a complex yet important element of his life--particularly his wife, Annette, and his last mistress and model, Caroline--as was the intimate relationship he shared with his brother Diego, who was both Alberto's confidant and collaborator.
James Lord was personally acquainted with Giacometti and his entourage, and combines firsthand experience with a unique knowledge gathered during many years of observation and research. In this exceptional biography Lord unfolds the personal history of a man who managed to achieve a heroic destiny by remaining utterly true to himself and to his calling.
Giacometti: A Biography was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. James Lord has subsequently published three volumes of memoirs. In recognition of his contribution to French culture he has been made an officer of the Legion of Honour.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting "writerly" biography.......2004-06-09
This book about Alberto Giacometti's life, from his boyhood in Switzerland, to his successful career in Paris, is an interesting read not only on the artistic level, but also on a personal level. This book presents Alberto's unique eccentricities and habits, his moral code, his issues with women, and his friendships (which include Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Breton, Andre Derain, Pablo Picasso and Jean-Paul Sartre) in a complete and exhaustive manner. It also recounts his complicated and close relationship with his brother and collaborator Diego. It was truly illuminating about the life of such an incredible artist.
However, the writing style is pretentious and sometimes so "writerly" as to be opaque. Lord dissects the actions of the people he writes about in a sometimes pompous way, and he is none too kind to the women in Giacometti's life.
But I recommend this book to people interested in Giacometti, as well as to those who like to read about the Parisian intelligensia around WWII and into the 60s.
highly informative, but not incisive.......2001-05-06
Scrupulously researched and intelligently written, Lord's biography of Giacometti is cleary a labor of love. Anyone seeking a compelling and articulate account of this artist's life will not be disappointed. The b&w photographs of Giacometti's family, intimates, and major works are well-chosen.
Yet the book is not without its problems. The author's prose stylings can seem somewhat oblique and hi-falutin; on occasion his weakness for facile psychoanalysis of his subject nearly undermines the entire project. For all the book's detail, it's curiously difficult to get a sense for how this artist viewed himself in the world. Did Giacometti consider himself a sophisticate? a bohemian? an artisan? an iconoclast? a failure? This is a polite, somewhat aloof biography of a passionate man.
Lord ably describes the evolution of this artist's process and work, and places it in clear historical context. Yet readers seeking a more incisive appraisal of Giacometti's aesthetic achievement might do better to turn to works by David Sylvester or Yves Bonnefoy ... Still, this is an accomplished, considered, well-crafted, and intelligent biography.
Getting In Touch With Giacometti.......2000-01-07
When I started with this biography I knew little of Alberto Giacometti. To me he was a sculptor of tall lanky figures. Mr. Lord's book gave me a complete look at the man as artist/sculptor, man of genius and flawed individual. It points out the power of absolute focus on a personal goal. Anyone wanting to know of the artist in a personal way will enjoy this biography. The reading of the book was enjoyable albeit a few times getting too wordy with descriptions of motives for Mr. Giacometti. If I would flaw the book however it would be for a lack of illustrations of the artist's work. There were some pictures of the work but with such a complete biography it would have been nice to have a more complete coverage of the artist works, drawings, paintings and sculpture.
Without Question, the best bio of an artist I've read.......1998-10-17
Alberto Giacometti, a true genius, was a touchstone for the leading lights of the first half of the 20th century in paris -- from Picasso to Beckett. Lord's book explores his art, his relationships and his pursuit of what cannot be expressed with power and grace.
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Alberto Giacometti in Postwar Paris
Michael Peppiatt
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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ASIN: 0300092423 |
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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Augusto Giacometti: Leben und Werk
Beat Stutzer
Manufacturer: Verlag Bundner Monatsblatt
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ASIN: 3905241226 |
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Giacometti
Charles Juliet
Manufacturer: Hazan
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Modern Irish Lives: Dictionary of 20th-Century Irish Biography
Manufacturer: Gill & MacMillan
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ASIN: 0717127869 |
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Alberto Giacometti: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (Art & Design)
Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti
Looking at Giacometti
