Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti

Artists

Active in Paris: 1946–1966

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, and draftsman associated with Surrealism and later with existentialist postwar sculpture. Based in Paris for most of his career, he worked in a small studio at 46 Rue Hippolyte-Maindron in Montparnasse, which became an important meeting point for artists and writers of the period.

Ellsworth Kelly met Giacometti at the Galerie Maeght exhibition Tendance in 1951, where Kelly showed Colors for a Large Wall, Méditerranée, and Fête à Torcy. The encounter led Kelly to visit the sculptor’s studio shortly afterward, around 1951, during his Paris years.

Barbara Chase-Riboud encountered Giacometti through Henri Cartier-Bresson, who introduced the young sculptor to his studio in 1962. She remembered him as “a walking Egyptian mummy, entirely white”. Despite this early meeting in Paris, their contact was brief and episodic and she saw him only once more, by chance in Milan.

 



Exhibitions & Events

Galerie Maeght

  • Alberto Giacometti

    Years: 1951

    DLM No. 39–40. Alberto Giacometti. Text by Michel Leiris. June 1951.
  • Braque

    Years: 1952

    DLM No. 48–49. G. Braque. Texts by Alberto Giacometti and Jean Grenier. June–July 1952.
  • Giacometti

    Years: 1954

    DLM No. 65. Giacometti. Text by Jean-Paul Sartre. May 1954.
  • Sur 4 murs

    Years: 1958

    DLM No. 107–108–109. Sur 4 murs. Miró, Chagall, Giacometti, Tal-Coat, Léger, Kandinsky, Matisse, and Bazaine. June–July 1958.
  • Tendance: Pablo Palazuelo

    Years: 1952

    The 1952 Tendance exhibition was a group exhibition held in October 1952 at Galerie Maeght in Paris. It featured Ellsworth Kelly alongside artists such as Pablo Palazuelo and Alain Naudé. Kelly met Giacometti at that exhibition, and that led to Kelly visiting his studio. DLM No. 50. Tendance: Pablo Palazuelo. Text by Michel Seuphor. October 1952.