GIACOMETTI: at Guggenheim: Review By Polly Guerin

The Giacometti Exhibition within the Museum's Rotunda 

Although most of us remember Giacometti, as the preeminent modernist sculptor renowned for creating distinctive figurative sculptures the exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum examines anew the artist's expansive oeuvre. Encompassing the entirety of the artist's career, GIACOMETTI opens up a rare opportunity to see decades of his works installed within the museums rotunda. Through September 12, 2018.
       Featuring nearly 200 sculptures, paintings, an drawing, this is the first major museum exhibition in the United States in more that 15 years dedicated to the Swiss-born artist. some of which have never before seen in the United States as well as archival photographs and ephemera. 

Alberto Giacometti in his Paris studio, 1958

THE FIGURATIVE SCULPTURES Renowned for the distinctive figurative sculptures that he produced in reaction to the trauma and anguish of World War II, includes a series of elongated standing women, striding men, and expressive bust-length figures.  Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) investigateted the human figure for more than forty years. He moved to Paris in 1922 and eventually settled in a 15-by-16-foot studio in the artists' quarter of Montparnasse. Image: Alberto Giacometti in his Paris studio, 1958. Photo Ernst Scheidegger. (c) 2018 Stiftung Ernst Scheidegger-Archiv-Zurich.
He produced the greater part of his work in this tiny space, which he maintained until the end of his life. Giacometti's brother Diego, also an artist , became his assistant, he and Annette Arm, whom Giacometti wed in 1949, were the artist's most frequently rendered models. It is interesting to note that the new Giacometti Institute will soon open in the historic Montparnasse district where the artist lived and worked.
RETROSPECTIVE Visitors will have the opportunity to view works from across Giacometti's career. Examples of his early production reveal his engagement with Cubism and Surrealism as well as African, Oceanic, Cycladic art, and reflect interaction with writers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.  

The Nose (Le nez) 1949

The selection of paintings and drawings on view demonstrates his attempt to capture the essence of humanity which identifies with his incessant sculptural investigation of the human body. Rich historical photographs and ephemera, such as journals ad sketchbooks containing drawings, also provide insights into Giacometti's process and artistic development. Image: The Nose, (Le nez) 1949 (cast 1964) Bronze, wire, rope and steel. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 66.1807 (c) Alberto Giacometti Estate/Licensed by VAGA and ARS, New York. Photo: Kristopher McKay (c) The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
      Education and Public Programs with details are posted at
guggenheim.org/calendar.  Including: REFLECTIONS ON GIACOMETTI, Tuesday, July 31 at 6:30 pm. Film Screenings take place in the New Media Theater, Level B and are free with museum admission including Alberto Giacometti (1966), dir. Ernst Scheidegger and Peter Munger, 28 min on Friday September 7 at 3 pm, 3:30 pm and 4 pm. For more information visit: guggenheim.org/films.
      Ta Ta Darlings!! Giacometti's oeuvre transcends the stick figures and emerges at the Guggenheim shedding new light on the artist's notable works in paintings and sculptures of another kind.  Fan mail welcome at pollytalknyc@gmail.com.  Visit Polly's other Blogs at
www.pollytalk.com. Just click in the left hand column to links on visionary men, women determined to succeed, fashion and even poetry.