The Cleveland Museum of Art presents "Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure"
Gordon Parks - Alberto Giacometti in his Studio - 1951Alberto Giacometti - Walking Man I - 1960
From 12 March to 12 June 2022, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents "Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure", an exhibition that surveys the artistic evolution that led Alberto Giacometti to his most celebrated works, "Walking Man" and "Standing Woman".
Images: Alberto Giacometti in His Studio, 1951. Gordon Parks (American, 1912–2006). Silver print on paper; 40.8 x 40.8 cm. Archives, Fondation Giacometti. © Courtesy of and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation ·· Walking Man I, 1960. Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901–1966). Bronze; 180.5 x 27 x 97 cm. Fondation Giacometti. © Succession Alberto Giacometti / ADAGP, Paris, 2022
Despite all my efforts, it was impossible for me then to endure a sculpture that gave an illusion of movement, a leg advancing, a raised arm, a head looking sideways. I could only create such movement if it was real and actual. I also wanted to give the sensation of motion that could be induced.Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) is widely regarded as one of the key figures of 20th-century sculpture. Inspired in part by avant-garde movements such as Cubism and Surrealism, Giacometti "reasserted the validity of the figure and figural representation at a time when abstract art had become dominant in the international art world", as the Cleveland Museum of Art explains in the exhibition's press release. Nearly half a century after his death, 3 of the 4 most expensive sculptures ever auctioned are by Giacometti, including one of the examples of "L'Homme qui marche", a work represented in the Cleveland exhibition by an example from the Fondation Giacometti.
"Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure" includes some 60 works -sculptures, paintings and drawings- focusing on the artist's output between 1945 and 1966. After its run in Cleveland, the exhibition will also be presented at the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.
“Giacometti spent a lifetime struggling to resolve fundamental issues in the nature of sculpture,” said William Robinson, senior curator of modern art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. “This exhibition explores his development of distinctive figures that speak to the anxieties of the modern age. The works are presented in twelve thematic sections that take visitors through Giacometti’s intense focus on the human figure and the development of his signature style.”

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