Alberto Giacometti

Swiss sculptor. Born in Stampa, Switzerland. Studied at the École des Arts et d'Arts in Geneva. After studying in Italy, he moved to Paris in 1922 and studied at Bourdelle's studio. From around 1925, he produced Cubist-style structural sculptures. In 1930, he joined the Surrealist movement and produced "Palace at 4 a.m." (1933, Museum of Modern Art, New York). However, from these attempts, he returned to nature-based explorations, especially the expression of the human body, and from 1935 to 1945, he entrusted the anguish and anxiety he experienced before and after World War II to his completely unique expression of the human body. The condensed, almost wire-like human body, the rough and prickly skin, and the size that sometimes shrunk to a few centimeters. These were highly praised as expressions of human existence, especially in the context of the postwar world. Eventually, the human body gradually became taller, but also thinner. In his later years, he entrusted the anguish of humanity, and also the anguish of expression itself, to the faces of his brother Diego and his wife Annette. He won the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1962. A major retrospective was held in London and New York in 1965. He died in Chur, a town near his hometown in Switzerland.

[Kimio Nakayama]

"With Giacometti" by Isaku Yanaihara (1969, Chikuma Shobo)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

スイスの彫刻家。スイスのシュタンパに生まれる。ジュネーブの美術工芸学校に学ぶ。イタリアに遊学後、1922年パリに住み、ブールデルの工房で学ぶ。25年ごろからキュビスム風の構成的な彫刻を発表。30年シュルレアリスムの運動に参加、『午前四時の宮殿』（1933・ニューヨーク近代美術館）を制作。しかしこれらの試みからふたたび自然に基づく探求、とくに人体表現へと帰り、35～45年の間、第二次世界大戦前から戦後にかけての苦悩と不安をまったく独自な人体表現に託した。凝縮されほとんど針金のようになった人体、荒々しくとげとげしい肌、ときには数センチメートルにまで小さくなった大きさ。それらはとくに戦後世界の状況のなかで、人間の実存の表現として高く評価された。やがて人体はしだいに高くなるが、いっそう細くなる。晩年は弟ディエゴと妻アネットの顔に、人類の苦悩、そしてまた表現の苦悩そのものを託した。62年ベネチア・ビエンナーレで大賞を受賞。65年ロンドンおよびニューヨークで大回顧展が開催された。スイスの故郷に近い町クールで没。

［中山公男］

『矢内原伊作著『ジャコメッティとともに』（1969・筑摩書房）』

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