Alberto Giacometti (Borgonuovo, 1901 – Coira, 1966) was born into a family steeped in creativity – his father, Giovanni Giacometti, was a prominent Post-Impressionist painter. Immersed in an artistic environment from a young age, Alberto quickly developed a passion for drawing, painting, and sculpture.
Between 1919 and 1920, he studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts and sculpture and drawing at the École des Arts et Métiers in Geneva. In 1922, he moved to Paris, where he studied sculpture under Émile-Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
A formative trip to Italy in 1920 left a deep impression on him. At the Venice Biennale, Giacometti encountered the works of Paul Cézanne and Alexander Archipenko, experiences that profoundly influenced his artistic vision. He also drew inspiration from African and Egyptian art, the paintings of Giotto and Tintoretto, and Etruscan sculpture. These diverse sources of influence are evident in his early works, such as Torso (1925–26) and Donna Cucchiaio (1926–27), which reflect his interest in tribal art.
In 1927, Giacometti opened a studio in Paris with his brother Diego. That same year, he exhibited his sculptures at the Salon des Tuileries and held his first exhibition in Switzerland — together with his father — at Galerie Aktuaryus in Zurich.
Between 1928 and 1935, Giacometti became associated with the Surrealist movement. During this period, his work explored themes of imagination, the subconscious, and symbolic objects. Sculptures such as Uomo e Donna (1928–29) and especially Sfera sospesa (1930) reduced the human form to geometric shapes, often evoking sexuality and dream imagery. These ideas continued in works like Gabbia (1931), which introduced the concept of sculpture as a transparent structure — a kind of spatial “frame” suggesting both presence and confinement. His experimentation continued with pieces like Oggetti mobili e muti (1931) and Palazzo alle 4 del mattino (1932). Giacometti’s first solo exhibition took place in 1932 at Galerie Pierre Colle in Paris, followed two years later by his first U.S. solo show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York.
By the mid-1930s, Surrealism gave way to a renewed focus on reality. Giacometti began to observe and represent the world around him more directly, marking a turning point in both style and technique. A key example is Le Mele sul Buffet (1937), painted after an exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of Cézanne’s death. Influenced by Cézanne’s ideas about perception and space, Giacometti began to explore how objects relate to each other and to their surroundings — a theme that would define much of his later work.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Giacometti’s mature style was his reductionist approach to form, a process that became central after World War II. His sculptures grew thinner, almost ghost-like, reflecting a deepening concern with the fragility of human existence. He developed a minimalist, yet expressive visual language, revisiting the same subjects repeatedly: figures, faces, family, and landscapes, all stripped to their essential forms.
In 1946, Giacometti returned to Paris. Two years later, he held a new solo exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Around 1951, he became close friends with the writer Samuel Beckett — another artist fascinated by human isolation and existential themes.
His work received increasing international recognition. In 1955, both the Arts Council Gallery in London and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York organized major retrospectives. In 1961, he was awarded the Sculpture Prize at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, and in 1962, he received the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale, where he was given his own exhibition space.
More major shows followed in 1965 at the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk, Denmark, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. That same year, Giacometti was honored by the French government with the Grand Prix National des Arts.
