Gazing Head, 1928
Tête qui regarde

‘Tête qui regarde’ and the other disc-shaped sculptures are Giacometti’s first entirely independent and novel contribution to modern sculpture (see GS 010, GS 011, GS 169). The reduction of the face to a horizontal and a vertical element echoes Ferdinand Hodler’s ‘Parallelism’, with its symbolist amplification of the two fundamental orientations. The disembodied membrane that merely modulates light excited the Surrealists, who saw in it a projection from the world of inner imaginings.

Material
Marble
Dimensions
41 x 37 x 8 cm
Creditline
Kunst Museum Winterthur, on permanent loan from the Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1976
This work is on long-term loan to the Kunst Museum Winterthur
Object number
GS 012
Signature
inscr. on plinth, back left: Alberto Giacometti
Provenance
  • Kunst Museum Winterthur, ab 1976, Dauerleihgabe
  • Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung (Sammlung), Zürich, 16.12.1965, Übernahme
  • Alberto Giacometti-Syndikat, Oktober 1963, Kauf
  • Galerie Beyeler, Kauf, 1963
  • Sammlung G. David Thompson, Pittsburgh, Kauf, 1956
  • Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Kauf
  • Galerie Maeght, Paris, Kauf
  • Alberto Giacometti