Fondation Giacometti

In 1949 Giacometti started this composition that took up once more the theme of the cage, that he had been exploring for twenty years. The first destroyed versions (1930-1931) of the cage of the “Suspended Ball”, or the surrealist “Cage” had thick uprights; Giacometti took up that idea in order to develop it by applying the vibrant outlines of his figurines to the uprights and the square section pedestal with feet of the Cage. He then worked in parallel on the “Four figurines on a base”, whose feet were rounded. By the end of 1949, the beginning of 1950, Giacometti worked flat out to prepare his second exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, which took place in December. He said in the letter published in the catalogue: “I saw this composition in its form and colour before I started working on it but the woman had her arms raised, her hands stretched, it quickly became unbearable in the sculpture”. This composition is a still life extracted from the studio: a bust of a man on a pedestal placed on a small turntable next to a figurine, the whole delimited by a few strokes that form at the same time a frame in volume, a theatre room-scene (a sketch on the wall of the studio shows the woman with her arms pulling a curtain in a kind of small castle) and a summing up of the world. The work was cast in bronze from 1950. The first two bronzes exhibited were enhanced with oil paint by the artist.

Signature and cast number engraved on the side of the base to its proper left "Alberto Giacometti / Fondation A.A. Giacometti"

Alberto GIACOMETTI
Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Annette Giacometti
Fondation Giacometti

2005 Alberto Giacometti au donjon de Vez, Vez (France), Donjon de Vez, from June 18th to October 2nd 2005
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kamakura (Japan), The Museum of Modern Art, from June 3rd to July 30th 2006, no. IV-5
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. IV-5
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Sakura (Japan), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, from October 10th to December 3rd 2006, no. IV-5
2007 L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris (France), Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, from October 15th 2007 to February 11th 2008, no. 168
2008 En perspective, Giacometti, Caen (France), Musée des Beaux-Arts, from May 17th to August 31st 2008
2008 Alberto Giacometti, Rotterdam (Netherlands), Kunsthal, from October 18th 2008 to February 8th 2009, no. 75
2010 Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Wolfsbourg (Germany), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, from November 20th 2010 to March 6th 2011, no. 17
2011 Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Salzbourg (Austria), Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg, from March 26th to July 3rd 2011
2011 Alberto Giacometti. Una retrospectiva. Colección de la Fundación Alberto y Annette Giacometti, Malaga (Spain), Museo Picasso, from October 17th 2011 to February 5th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Coleção da Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, Sao Paulo (Brazil), Pinacoteca do estado, from March 24th to June 17th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Coleção da Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Museu de Arte Moderna, from July 17th to September 16th 2012
2012 Alberto Giacometti. Colección de la Fundación Alberto y Annette Giacometti,París, Buenos Aires (Argentina), Fundación PROA, from October 13th 2012 to January 9th 2013
2013 Alberto Giacometti. Espace, tête, figure, Grenoble (France), Musée de Grenoble, from March 9th to June 9th 2013
2015 Alberto Giacometti, Istanbul, Tepebasi-Beyoglu-Istanbul, PERA MUSEUM, from February 10th to April 26th 2015
2016 Alberto Giacometti retrospective at Yuz Museum, Shanghai (China), The Shanghai Yuz Museum, from March 22nd to July 31st 2016
2017 Alberto Giacometti - Tate Modern London, London (United Kingdom), Tate Gallery, from May 10th to September 10th 2017
2018 Alberto Giacometti Retrospective Québec, Quebec (Canada), Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec, from February 8th to May 13th 2018
2018 Giacometti Retrospective Guggenheim New York, New York, NY (United States Of America), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, from June 8th to September 12th 2018
2018 Giacometti Restrospective Bilbao, Bilbao (Spain), Guggenheim Museum, from October 19th 2018 to February 24th 2019
2019 Alberto Giacometti Une aventure moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq (France), LaM, Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne d'art contemporain et d'art brut, from March 11th to June 11th 2019
2019 Alberto Giacometti, D'après le modèle (Prague)., Prague (Czech Republic), Veletržní palác, from July 18th to December 1st 2019
2020 Alberto Giacometti. Tête à tête., Stockholm (Sweden), Moderna Museet, from October 10th 2020 to May 30th 2021
2021 Alberto Giacometti. Une rétrospective. Le réel merveilleux., MONACO (Monaco), Grimaldi Forum Monaco, from July 3rd to August 29th 2021
2023 Le temps de Giacometti., Toulouse (France), Les Abattoirs. Musée d'art moderne et contemporain-Frac Occitanie Toulouse, from September 22nd 2023 to January 21st 2024
2024 Alberto Giacometti – What Meets the Eye., Copenhague (Denmark), Statens Museum for Kunst, from February 10th to May 20th 2024
2024 Alberto Giacometti: Surrealistische Entdeckungen, Bruhl (Germany), Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR, from September 1st 2024 to January 15th 2025
2025 Barbican Center 2 : Giacometti - Mona Hatoum, London (United Kingdom), Barbican Centre, from September 3rd 2025 to January 11th 2026

Guy TOSATTO, Véronique WIESINGER, "La Fondation Giacometti a restauré La Cage de 1950", in Beaux Quartiers, Grenoble : Société Grenobloise de Médias, no. H.S., spring 2013, cat. no. s., p. 38, ill. p. 38
Léa DUCRE, "Giacometti, figures entêtantes", in L'Avant-Post, Grenoble, march 22nd, 2013
"Giacometti en Buenos Aires", in La Nacion, Buenos Aires, october 12th, 2012, ill. p. 5
Sheila LEIRNER, in O Estado de S. Paulo, Sao Paulo, february 3rd, 2001, p. 18, ill. p. 18
Alberto GIACOMETTI, Alberto Giacometti, New York, NY : Pierre Matisse Gallery, 1950, cat. no. 11, ill. p. 11
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti au Donjon de Vez, Oeuvres de la Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Vez : Donjon de Vez, 2005, p. 26, ill. p. 25, 27 & 34
Véronique WIESINGER, Toshio YAMANASHI (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Tokyo : The Tokyo Shimbun, 2006, cat. no. IV-5, p. 108, ill. p. 108
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Fondation Giacometti, 2007 / Paris : Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2007, cat. no. 168, p. 147, pl. 496, ill. p. 362
Véronique WIESINGER, En perspective, Giacometti, Lyon : Fage Editions, 2008, p. 131, ill. p. 113, 119 & 131
Véronique WIESINGER, Charlotte VAN LINGEN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Harderwijk : D'jonge Hond, 2008, cat. no. 75, pl. 121
Markus BRUDERLIN, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Ostfildern : HATJE CANTZ VERLAG, 2010 / Wolfsbourg : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2010 / Salzbourg : Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg, 2010, p. 112 & 250, ill. p. 113
Markus BRUDERLIN, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. The Origin of Space, Ostfildern : HATJE CANTZ VERLAG, 2010 / Wolfsburg : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2010, p. 112 & 250, ill. p. 113
Musée de Grenoble. La saison 2012>2013, Grenoble : Musée de Grenoble, 2012, p. 18, ill. p. 18
Musée de Grenoble. Musée en musique 2012/13, Grenoble : Musée de Grenoble, 2012, p. 18, ill. p. 18
Musée de Grenoble. Les Amis du Musée 2012/13, Grenoble : Musée de Grenoble, 2012, p. 18, ill. p. 18
SARTRE, Alberto Giacometti, Sao Paulo : Editora WMF Martins Fontes Ltda, 2012, ill. p. 72
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Giacometti, Sao Paulo : Cosac & Naify Ediçoes, 2012, ill. p. 266, 267
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. A Retrospective, Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 2012 / Malaga : Museo Picasso, 2012, ill. p. 31, 260
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Una retrospectiva, Barcelona : Ediciones Poligrafa, 2012 / Malaga : Museo Picasso, 2012, ill. p. 31, 260
Véronique WIESINGER, Alberto Giacometti. Espace, tête, figure, Arles : Actes Sud, 2013 / Paris : Fondation Giacometti, 2013 / Grenoble : Musée de Grenoble, 2013, p. 46 & 174, ill. p. 47