3. The surrealist experiment

Alberto Giacometti, Gazing Head, 1929, Plaster coated with a parting compound, pencil traces, 40 x 36,4 x 6,5 cm, coll.Fondation Giacometti, Paris.
© Succession Giacometti (Fondation Giacometti, Paris et ADAGP, Paris)

Giacometti joined André Breton’s Surrealist movement in 1931, as an active member of Breton’s group, Giacometti in no time stood out as one of its rare sculptors. Despite his being expelled in February 1935, surrealist procedures continued to play an important part in his creative work: dreamlike visions, montage and assemblage, objects with metaphorical functions, and magical treatment of the figure.

The Gazing Head, caught the attention of the group in 1929, and the Walking Woman of 1932, conceived as a model for the major Surrealist exhibition of 1933, in the version with neither arms nor head, featured in the 1936 Surrealist show in London. A painted version of the set construction titled The Palace at 4 a.m. conjures up the theatrical aspect of his dreamlike world. When, in 1965, Giacometti created a final version of the Suspended Ball for a retrospective in London, and by also providing a painted version of it, the artist showed how his links with the movement lived on.