Alberto Giacometti has long been recognized as one of the most original artists of the last century, producing not just the sculptures for which he is best known, but also remarkable paintings, drawings, and lithographs. Yves Bonnefoy's groundbreaking monograph, first published in 1991, reveals the psychological and intellectural context of Giacometti's artistic output, while at the same time providing key interpretations of individual works. Available for the first time in paperback, this richly illustrated, scholarly study remains a seminal work on the artist and his era, raising issues central to the understanding of twentieth-century art as a whole.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
One of the most universally admired artists of the 20th century, the Swiss-born sculptor/painter Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) is best known for a series of bronzes depicting ghostly, attenuated figures made during a burst of intense creative activity inspired partly by the cataclysmic events of World War II. The largest retrospective of Giacometti's work ever mounted almost 200 individual sculptures, paintings, and drawings, shown at Zurich's Kunsthaus and New York's MoMA has generated Klemm's fine catalog, the best book on this major figure to have appeared since James Lord's definitive Giacometti: A Biography (Noonday, 1997. reprint.). In addition to the aforementioned sculptures, Kunsthaus curator Klemm has assembled a farrago of this artist's eclectic accomplishments, from his early eminence among the Parisian Surrealists onward. Worth the entire cover price is the handful of pages depicting the astonishingly agile still-life drawings from the artist's productive mid-century years. An excellent and deeply inspiring book true to its subject; recommended for all art collections. Also timed to coincide with the exhibition is the publication of an elegantly packaged, slipcased set of two thin monographs profiling Alberto and his lesser-known sibling, Diego (1902-85), a designer of furniture and objets d'art and the metal smith who cast many of his brother's major bronzes. Identical in format and size, these books are primarily a conglomeration of a few dozen photos of artwork alongside short introductory biocritical essays and brief chronologies. Next to Klemm's hefty volume, each of these works feels more like a repackaged article from a glossy art journal, suitable as an attractive gift book but providing little for most library users. Nonetheless, as the only title currently available on the younger Giacometti, the set can be recommended for more comprehensive collections. Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Born in Tours in 1923, Yves Bonnefoy graduated in history of science and philosophy. He is first and foremost, however, a writer, and has devoted himself primarily to the analysis of poetry and art. He published his first volume of poems, Du Mouvement et de l'immobilité de Douve, in 1953. He has also written numerous essays, including Rome 1630, L'Improbable, L'Arrière-pays and Entretiens su la poésie, and has translated Shakespeare and Yeats into French. Many of his poetic works have been translated into English (In the Shadow's Light, 1990; New and Selected Poems, 1996) along with a number of his essays (The Act and the Place of Poetry, 1989; The Lure and Truth of Painting, 1995), all published by the University of Chicago Press. He was awarded the Prix Montaigne in 1978 and the Bennett Award in New York in 1988. He has been invited to teach at numerous American universities, among them Yale, Princeton, the University of California and City University, New York. He was elected in 1981 to a Chair of Comparative Poetry at the Collège de France, and is a doctor honoris causa at various universities, including the University of Chicago.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
great illustrations, curious text,
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This review is from: Giacometti (Paperback)
This large tome is a translation into English from the original written in French and released in 1991. It is written by Yves Bonnefoy, who is primarily a poet by profession. His writing is often of an analytic bent in which he attempts to demonstrate how Giacometti's personality and life experience influenced the sculpture and paintings that he created. Be warned, the style is often prolix and difficult to fathom. I present a random quote from the book as an example.
" And this is, in a sense, yet another sign of the potential fecundity, the richness of this new period: between these two extremes, without sacrificing anything to their fundamental mystery, Giacometti is now entitled to suggest many compositions-of 'incredible complexity'-which, without reaching the essence of things, none the less will point to it. Sometimes they will let the never-mastered terror before nothingness overwhelm the artist's mind, sometimes they suceed, perhaps, in conveying the 'wonder' of life which remained Giacometti's great supporting thought during these months. Many things become possible: all of them ambiguous". Fortunately not all of the writing is as incomprehensible as this exerpt, but similar passages abound. Ultimately the attentive reader should be able to get some idea of what Bonnefoy is attempting to convey. The redeeming feature of this book is the copious amount of quality reproductions of Giacometti's enigmatic and often haunting sculptures and paintings. These beautiful images often occupy a full page and are in themselves a good enough reason to acquire this book.There are additionally some interesting photographs of the artist and his studio. Despite my reservations about the text, I would still recommend this book as an excellent overview of Giacometti's life and work.
5.0 out of 5 stars
my favorite artist,
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This review is from: Giacometti (Paperback)
If you love his work you must get this book. Its a great catalog of some of his finest works.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book on one of true greats,
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This review is from: Giacometti (Paperback)
Alberto Giacometti gave Western art perhaps the most persuasive and comprehensive view of the state of being human post WW2; eroded to its core yet still possessing the intelligence to think it way out of the mess it constantly makes for itself.
Yves Bonnefoy's book Giacometti is the definitive work on this artist and should be compulsory reading for anyone contemplating becoming a contemporary artist as it contains all the clues that would alow someone to understand such essential things as integrity and the balancing act between idea and artistry.
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