Fondation Giacometti

The Fondation has a collection of more than 4,500 photographs, constantly enriched, from the studio of Alberto Giacometti.

These photographs are precious testimonials about the artist’s life, his works and his studio. The artist can be seen sculpting, painting and drawing, with or without a model by his side, in Paris or in Switzerland.

There are many photographs of the studio in the rue Hippolyte-Maindron, where Giacometti settled in 1926. The studio particularly attracted photographers who came to report after the Second World War, as Giacometti had already become famous by then. Thus, we find in the Fondation’s collection work by some of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century: Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Alexander Liberman, Man Ray, Arnold Newman, Gordon Parks, etc.

Annette Giacometti also often photographed her husband in his studio; she recorded some of the long sessions when Yanaihara posed for Giacometti.

The Foundation also has photographs of exhibitions which have made Giacometti’s work known around the world: the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, the Maeght Gallery in Paris, the Venice Biennale, the Fondation Maeght, MoMA New York, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the Tate Gallery.

Here are some names of photographers whose work is represented in the Fondation’s collections: Rogi André, Emmy Andriesse, Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Franco Cianetti, Jean Collas, Denise Colomb, Robert Doisneau, Claude Gaspari, François Kollar, Alexander Liberman, Eli Lotar, Man Ray, Patricia Matisse, Arnold Newman, Jack Nisberg, Gordon Parks, Emile Savitry, Ernst Scheidegger, Giorgio Soavi, Marc Vaux, Sabine Weiss.

The photographic holdings are accessible by appointment to researchers who have previously sent a request to bibliotheque (at) fondation-giacometti.fr