Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 1901-1966

Born the son of a post-impressionist painter in Borgonovo, Switzerland, Alberto Giacometti is one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva, he settled in Paris in 1922 where he attended Antoine Bourdelle’s sculpture classes and had regular contact with the Montparnasse artists. His younger brother Diego moved in with him in 1927, becoming his counsellor, model and studio assistant. Deeply influenced by Egyptian art and Cubism, Alberto Giacometti joined the Surrealist movement in 1931, but as he started working from the living model and took a realist turn he broke with them in 1935 to pursue a deeper analysis of figuration, creating portrait busts and studies of heads. Alberto Giacometti’s international fame grew exponentially throughout the 1950s, as he was honored with a retrospective first at the Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum in 1955, then at the Bern Kunsthalle in 1956. He also re- presented France at the Venice Biennale in the same year. His works can be found in the most prestigious public and private collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Tate Gallery, London; the Beyeler Foundation, Basel.