This sketchpad documents Giacometti’s evolution towards avant-garde art. The drily meticulous sketches of conventional monuments briefly hint at a future as a monumental mason rather than a freelance artist. The nudes are stylized in large format; considerably more carefully elaborated are the studies of Mesopotamian cylinder seals, as well as works by Fernand Léger and Marcel Gromaire, Pablo Picasso’s large figure from the ‘Demoiselles dʼAvignon’ circle and Michelangelo’s ‘Pietà’ from Florence Cathedral.

It is interesting to note that these studies lead to designs for abstract, organically post-Cubist sculptures. Unexpectedly, a copy from a pre-Columbian figure forms the starting point for sketches from which the ‘Femme cuillère’ develops (see GS 004).

Material

Pencil; pen in ink: 35, 38v, 44v, 45, and pencil: 40v, 42.

Dimensions

26.5 x 20.7 cm

Creditline

Kunsthaus Zürich, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, Donated by Bruno and Odette Giacometti, 2000

Object number

GS 231

Signature

not inscribed

Further information

59 sheets; fol. 22 loose

Provenance