Alberto Giacometti
(1901-1966)
Alberto Giacometti
(1901-1966)Composition avec trois figures et une tête (La place)
Intro
What at first glance looks like a toy model proves to be a work rich in associations. In this sculpture, Alberto Giacometti combines three elongated figures with the representation of a head. The fragile-looking figures have a frontal orientation facing the viewer and are distributed across a plinth—the “square” of the title.
Their isolation is immediately apparent. Disconnected and rigid, they stand on a tightly delineated field, and with the exception of the male head, remain strangely anonymous, like bodiless shadows. In the 1930s Giacometti began working on group sculptures which revolve around the motif of the square, exploring the relationship between figure and space, as well as the arrangement of the bodies on a plane.
His “square” also has an enigmatic quality. The combination of body and head resonates with a Surrealist note, combining apparently chance elements. After 1945 the artist’s work became associated with the Existentialists. His emaciated figures, as if on the verge of disappearing, appear to be caught in a trauma. In their isolation they are thrown back on themselves, which first becomes apparent through their spatial embedding.
Background
Created in 1950, the painted bronze »Composition with Three Figures, one Head (The Square)« is a perfect example of one of the many innovative concepts, which the Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti developed in his multifaceted oeuvre: the idea of the “sculpture as space”. The plinth, an element which has been increasingly called into question within the realm of modern sculpture, was declared to be an expansive setting for the representation.
On these platforms, Giacometti arranged one or more figures in a standing or striding position, thereby creating the expressive image of a social reality. The social constitution of space becomes comprehensible in these sculptures. They are the sites, subjects and objects which establish relationships with each other through their actions, functions and purposes, thereby generating space. In this way, the artist translated a fundamental finding of spatial theory into a visual image, thereby touching upon one of the principal fields of interdisci-plinary research during the twentieth century.
After studying at the School of Art and Crafts in Geneva, from 1922 onwards, Giacometti lived primarily in Paris. In the early 1930s, he joined the Surrealists. The impression of their alienating, fragmentary compositional principles inspired Giacometti to begin to create the simplified forms and elongated bronze figures that characterised his work from 1945 onward, following the oppressive experiences of the war years. These tall, fragile figures are a particularly impressive example of a tendency that united many sculptors at the time.
They created their works on the basis of a supra-individual, existential concept of mankind, which they developed in interaction with literature and philosophy, for example with the texts of Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), whom Giacometti knew well. In the worldview of that time, the individual was seen as isolated, because it was only by experiencing their selfs that people could understand themselves as humans. As individuals, they experienced a growing alienation and thus a distance between themselves and their surroundings.
Giacometti expressed this existentialist concept by means of a series of specific forms of representation: the de-materialisation of form, the fragmentation of volumes, the fissuring of the surface, the extreme enlargement or reduction in size of the figures and their individual positions – occasionally in groups. The fragility of the groups of figures is emphasised by the heavy, solid plinths or “city squares” and the figures’ feet, which are massive in comparison to the ultra-slender bodies.
In Giacometti’s eyes, the relationship between figure and space was the greatest challenge for the sculptor, and he analysed this as well as taking into account the spatial experience when viewing his works. For Jean-Paul Sartre, the founder of Existentialism, the sculptures were characterised by an “absolute distance”, which corresponded to the existence of the individual: “Each of these figures reveals to us the individual as he is seen, as he appears in an interpersonal environment […] from a human distance; each figure conveys to us the truth that mankind does not exist in order to be seen after the event, but that he is a being whose nature it is to exist for others. When I perceive this woman made of plaster, I see in her my own gaze. That is the reason for the pleasant discomfort which I experience when looking at her; I feel myself compelled and do not know why or by whom, until I discover that I am compelled by my own self.”
Transkription
Three figures are standing on a slightly concave bronze plinth. A head sticks out of the bottom, as if it were about to work itself out of the surface. Head and bodies alike are excessively elongated and thin. The figures seem fragile, haggard, as if about to dissolve. Their arms remain close to their bodies, none is turned towards the other.
This „Composition with Three Persons and One Head“, also called „The Square“, was created by Alberto Giacometti in 1950. He attempted, playfully at first, to take one head and several figures he had molded in the post-war years and arrange them on one surface which defines the surrounding space.
The Swiss sculptor, draughtsman and painter originated from Val Bregaglia in the canton of Grisons. They say that one day, he saw his girlfriend from afar while standing in a square. Afterwards, the artist tried to reproduce this view from afar in his work: by merely looking at the human figure it is impossible to identify it exactly since it appears as a mere silhouette or shadow.
Why not try out this effect ourselves? Let’s keep looking at a person who is walking away from us. Soon, we will have to squint to be able to see the person who is getting steadily slimmer, losing contours, becoming indistinguishable from others.
In their different sizes, Giacometti’s figures are a measure for space: as they grow slimmer and smaller, the space surrounding them increasingly broadens. However, distance provides them with a liveliness hard to fathom, while they become quite nondescript if we try to study them up close.
On loan from the State of Baden-Württemberg since 1962
Kunsthalle Mannheim / Cem Yücetas
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