The Swiss-born sculptor/painter Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) is best known for his bronzes depicting ghostly and attenuated figures, which
made him a key member of the Surrealist movement. Between 1936 and
1940, Giacometti concentrated on the human head, focusing on the
model's gaze, followed by a unique artistic phase in which his statues
became stretched out, as he attempted to translate the
phenomenological experience of looking at someone. His paintings
underwent a parallel procedure: the figures appear isolated, emaciated,
and are the result of continuous reworking. Giacometti reached
worldwide fame at the end of the 1950s and has been the subject to
major retrospectives around the world.
See also
Georges Didi-Huberman : The Cube and the Face – Around a Sculpture by Alberto Giacometti.