[Swiss Surrealist Painter and Sculptor, 1901-1966]
I almost didn't choose this photo because the rebel in my soul doesn't entirely appreciate the fact that the sculpture it depicts was located in the garden of the Hirshhorn estate in Greenwich, Ct. But I just read a someone's blog post on the place, which alludes to the fact that the sculptures have all been moved to Washington, D.C., somewhere. That redeems the justice issue a bit further, in my mind! ;-) What doesn't is the price tag on the estate, which is, or was, real estate. Minus statues: 38 million in 2008. Don't know if it's been sold since.
In any event, I love Giacometti (my father was a fan) and I feel an Artist of the Week post coming on...
Peace and Beauty,
Pagan Sphinx
I can see that Giger does indeed have a metaphorical Swiss godfather. I'll be interested in seeing the other pieces you choose for your retrospective.
ReplyDeleteThat must refer to the Hirshorn Museum in DC, part of the Smithsonian complex, I think.
ReplyDeletehttp://hirshhorn.si.edu/
I believe I am sculpture challenged. Given the way paintings move me, I suppose that's only fair (can't have everything). Very few sculptures or sculptors get under my skin. Moore, Rodin - I love them (but they are so voluptuous and sensual in their forms, earthy, that they're easy for me). More abstract or mental sculpture looks accidental to me, and not in a way that I find charming or tantalizingly dangerous (on the brink of losing control, yet still mastery), as I often find accident lively and charming in paint. And maybe the medium itself, even when it's more colorful (and most sculpture tends not to be colorful), leaves me cold. I'm not fond of metal, in general, and while I adore rocks and boulders (people tease me that my desk at work is actually a beach), I don't care for stone.
ReplyDeleteSo I have to admit I don't get Giacometti. I've seen over a dozen of his sculpture all together and it irritated me that it was so much the same. Brancusi does that to me, as well. Even worse, David Smith. Doesn't do a thing for me. I can always recognize their work, but nothing gets through. Transmitting on a wavelength I don't receive. Makes me feel deaf - especially compared to the operatic barrage of sound coming into my head and heart in a room full of paintings, whether I like them or not.
I'm interested to see if I can get some glimmer of what you love when you do your artist of the week on him.
Steve: there is a ghostly,shadowy, fleeting elegance in Giacometti's work. It doesn't matter if a lot of it is the same. That just means it's a certain kind of ghost that he needed to revisit through the process of sculpting. Perhaps he would laugh out loud if he could read this, but it's how his work makes me feel. I haven't come upon anyone else's interpretation and as with most art, I don't really care if I do or not.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Another thought is that I find it startling that something so concrete can seem so formless and fleeting and wispy.
ReplyDeleteWow! I love sculpture ... and I have not come across this Swiss surrealist, so thank you for introducing him to me!
ReplyDeleteI love Giacometti too. Great choice
ReplyDeleteI see the photo was taken by Gordon Parks, I love his work and it suits this artist
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed the bumper sticker in the previous post
Jams and Aguja - thanks!
ReplyDeleteDi" yes! the photographer is Gordon Parks and I forgot to credit the photo because the ghost of Giacometti got in my way! ;-) Originally what made it so striking was the photograph itself.
Hi Steve....
ReplyDeleteI found your blog because I was looking for some pictures of Giocometti Sculpture--in particular, this Head...Because I am writing a Post about The Sculpture which were at Joseph Hirshhorn home in Greenwich---ALL of which he gave to The Hirshhorn Museum in Washihington, D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Institution. I am very familiar with much of that collection because Mr. Hirshhorn was my father. His relationship to Art and Artists was probably the BEST thing about him. His true passion for Art grew within him from childhood on...Being a poor immigrant boy who lived out the Americam Dream---He bought Art and enjoyed it more than almost anything else in his life.
I LOVE Giacometti's work and always have...I never lived at the house in Greenwich---I was already a grown woman when my father bought that house back in 1962. He sold it in the early 1970's and moved to Washington so he could be closer to the Art that he loved so much there at The Museum. I have no idea who bought the house back then and my understanding is it has been bought and sold a few times since he sold it back in the 1970's. That it now has an asking price of $38 mil. is mind boggling. I think my father would be appalled to know that any home could cost that much. All of the Sculpture on the ground and in the House itself were moved to Washington in the early 1970's, so this Giacometti Head has NOT been in Greenwich for a very very long time.
Sorry to have gone on at such length...but, I thought you might be interested in some of the History. Incidentally, there were many many other Giacometti's in the original collection dontated by my father. One would hope that the Museum still has them. My father died in 1981 and he left another 6000 pieces of Art to the Museum, adding just that much more to the orginal 6000.
I don't know that I can express what it is about Giocometti's work that touches me so much---but it reaches a very deep place inside me and always has.
And interestingly---on another note---your commenter "Dianne" is someone who's blog I read, and Vica Versa. I love her!