Sketchpad, c. 1925/1927
Skizzenblock
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
-