Alberto Giacometti

“Artistically I am still a child with a whole life ahead of me to discover and create. I want something, but I won't know what it is until I succeed in doing it.”

(1901-1966) Alberto Giacometti was born on October 19, 1901 in Borgonovo, Spain to an artistic father, Giovanni, whom was a well-known post-impressionist painter that encouraged him to pursue art. He began his art studies at the Ecole des Beaux and the Ecole des Arts Industriels in Geneva. In 1922, he traveled to Paris and attended a sculpture class studying under Antoine Bourdelle at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere learning the craft of sculpting. Progressing in his career, Giacometti’s sculptures became lavish and spacious, following the post-Cubist sculptures and also reduced his sculptures size. His breakthrough moment came from his one man show at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in 1948. Giacometti was also a painter. His paintings comprised of portraits of his wife, brother, friends, as well as still life’s and landscapes. Similarly to his sculptures, the theme of his paintings is the relation between the slim object and space. In 1962, he was awarded the grand prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy. He passed away on January 11, 1966 of heart disease and chronic bronchitis in Chur, Switzerland. His work is exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zurich, the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, and the Guggenheim in New York.