1901-1966

 

Alberto Giacometti was a School of Paris sculptor, painter and draughtsman born in the village of Borgonovo near Stampa, Switzerland.

 

He began to draw, paint and sculpt at an early age and then studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Geneva 1919-20 and in Italy 1920-1. In 1922 he moved to Paris where he first studied in Archipenko's studio, then for five years at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under Bourdelle.

 

His first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Aktuaryus, Zurich, 1927. At this time he went through a period of intense restlessness in which he experimented with polychrome sculpture, cages, erotic kinetic objects, near-abstraction and other styles and he participated in the Surrealist movement between 1930-5. After this he began work again from the model, but each sculpture became smaller and smaller.

 

His characteristic style dates from 1947 when he started to make figures which were very tall and thin. Awarded the First Prize for Sculpture at the Pittsburgh International in 1961, the main prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale 1962, and the Guggenheim International Award for Painting 1964.