giacometti exhibition - tate modern

Alberto Giacometti
Aug 5, 2017
2 min read

Alberto Giacometti was one of the great painter - sculptors of the 20th century. He experimented with a large range of different styles and materials, whilst still retaining a unique, immediately recognisable artistic vision. He uses sharp textures in both his sculptures and paintings - this also makes Giacometti's work very recognisable. Giacometti's use of textures really interest me because it makes his work look quite chaotic, but you are able to see some sort of calmness in all of this chaos - especially in his paintings!! Born in 1902, Giacometti grew up in an alpine village in Bregaglia, Switzerland. He was the eldest child of Giovanni Giacometti, a post impressionist painter. As a teenager, surrounded by his father's paintings, Giacometti began make drawings, oil paintings an d sculptures. Painting dominated Giacometti's early years but in 1922 when he went toPairs, he focused on sculpture. He also engaged with movements

such as cubism and surrealism. Giacometti also then started creating sculptures directly from live models, which mean't his sculptures looked more realistic. For the most of the second World War he was in Geneva. When he returned to Pairs, after the war, he went on to create the elongated figures with highly textured surfaces and the distinctive portrait paintings for which he is best known.

My favourite pieces by Giacometti are the small figures he makes, this is because of the attention to detail. These figures are so small but he still manages to makes them look like a people. Also all the figures he creates makes me ask questions to myself... for example: Why are all his figures tall and skinny?? Who are all the people he paints and makes sculptures of?? More of my favourite work by him has to be his oil paintings. They are all so dark and gloomy, I see them as being quite mysterious. I feel as if there is a lot of mystery behind a lot, if not all Giacometti's work. The very messy, textured sculptures and the very dark, chaotic paintings give me that sense of mystery.

I would really advise going to see Giacometti's work at the Tate Modern - Personally I thoroughly liked it!! This exhibition ends on the 10th of September.

Today I went to the Giacometti exhibition, at the Tate Modern. This exhibition is the first large scale showing of his work in the UK for 20 years. It traces Giacometti's career and demonstrates his fascination with different materials and textures, such as plaster, clay and paint. As well as the tall thin bronze figures and portrait paintings the exhibition also contains plaster sculptures, decorative objects and drawings that have never been seen before! I don't really go to exhibitions that are dedicated to sculptures, because of this I really enjoyed this exhibition!!