Bouvard EmilieAlberto giacometti: toward the ultimate figure

A comprehensive survey of the work of the legendary Swiss artist, this book illustrates and examines more than 100 of his sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints. This richly illustrated retrospective traces the early and mid-career development of the eminent Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), examining the emergence of his distinct figurative style through works that include a series of walking men, reclining standing women, and numerous busts.
Rare paintings and drawings from his formative period show the importance of landscape in Giacometti’s work, while revealing the influence of the post-impressionist painters who surrounded his father, the artist Giovanni Giacometti. Other areas of research that Alberto Giacometti sheds new light on are his studio practice – amply illustrated with photographs – his obsession with the representation of the human head, his collaborations with poets and writers, and his development of the sculpture of the walking man, through numerous drawings.
Many of these have never been shown. Original essays by specialists in modern art and Giacometti shed new light on the sculptural masterpieces of the period, notably Walking Man, the Nose and the Chariot, or on key aspects of his work, such as the importance of surrealism, his practice of drawing or the question of space. Emilie Bouvard is director of the collections and scientific programme at the Giacometti Foundation, Paris.