“If I ever succeed in realizing a single head,” 20^th Century artist Alberto Giacometti said in a Swiss TV interview, “I’ll probably give up sculpture for good. But the funniest thing is, that if I were to do a head as I want to, then probably nobody would be interested in it anymore… What if it were just a banal little head? In fact, since 1935, this is what I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always failed.”

This summer, you can take a tour through the mind and work of the prodigious Swiss sculptor and painter, Alberto Giacometti, in an exhibit running until September 29th at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It’s a fascinating show organized into four major artist-relevant themes: Ancient Art and Influences, The Studio, Paris and Post-War Art, and Giacometti and British Art.

These themes are supplemented, we read, ‘by sub-themes that explore Giacometti’s exceptional drawings, his innovative approach to materials and processes, and his relationship to collectors Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, whose collections shape this exhibition.’

“It’s funny, when I took this studio,” Giacometti said. “I thought it was tiny … But the longer I stayed, the bigger it became. I could fit anything I wanted into it.

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Unfinished Sculptures in Plaster Crowding Giacometti’s Studio. 1950. Ernst Scheidegger

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Details of The Studio With Busts and Painted Wall. 1962. Ernst Scheidegger

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Head/Skull. 1934 (cast c. 1950-55)

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Table Lamps. c. 1930-35

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Small Self Portrait. 1921

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Portrait of Diego (his brother). 1914

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Bust of Diego. 1957

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Jean Genet. 1954 or 1955

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Annette. 1961

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‘The silence, I’m alone here,’ Giacometti wrote near his death in 1966. ‘Outside the night, nothing moves and sleep takes over again. I don’t know who I am, nor what I’m doing, nor what I would like to do, I don’t know if I’m old or young, maybe I still have some hundred thousand years to live until my death, my past sinks in a gray abyss.’

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Written by Elizabeth Newton
www.creatorsvancouver.com

Header + Final Photo. Ernst Scheidegger