Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 1901-1966

Alberto Giacometti, born on October 10, 1901, in Borgonovo, Switzerland, was a sculptor and painter whose work profoundly marked the art of the 20th century. Son of the post-Impressionist painter Giovanni Giacometti, he grew up in a family where artistic practice was part of everyday life. Very early on, he showed a remarkable gift for drawing and modeling, and in 1919 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva before moving to Paris in 1922 to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under sculptor Antoine Bourdelle.

In Paris, Giacometti encountered the avant-garde movements of the time and, during the 1920s, he became associated with Cubism and Surrealism. His early sculptures explored dreamlike and symbolic forms, which led him to collaborate with leading surrealists such as André Breton. However, by the late 1930s, he distanced himself from Surrealism and began a lifelong exploration of the human figure, seeking to capture its essence with a rare intensity.

From the 1940s onward, his style took on the form for which he became world-renowned: elongated, slender figures, often fragile in appearance, that seemed to oscillate between presence and disappearance. These sculptures, marked by rough surfaces and attenuated proportions, embodied his existential vision of the human condition—solitary, vulnerable, yet profoundly dignified. His paintings and drawings shared this same concern, often depicting faces and bodies with an almost obsessive repetition, as if trying endlessly to grasp their truth.

After World War II, Giacometti gained international recognition and became closely associated with the existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who saw in his art the visual expression of existential solitude. Major exhibitions in Europe and the United States established his reputation, and he received the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1962.

Despite fame, Giacometti led a modest, almost ascetic life, working tirelessly in his small, cluttered studio in Montparnasse. He continued to sculpt, paint, and draw until his final days.

Alberto Giacometti died on January 11, 1966, in Chur, Switzerland, at the age of 64. Today, he is celebrated as one of the greatest sculptors of the modern era. His attenuated figures, both fragile and monumental, remain enduring symbols of the search for meaning in the face of human isolation and existence.