Fondation Giacometti

Isaku Yanaihara (1918-1989) was a professor of philosophy in Japan, a specialist of the work of Sartre, Genet and Camus, whose book “L’Etranger” he translated into Japanese. He met Alberto Giacometti in Paris in 1955, and regularly sat for the artist, in 1956 and then during his summer stays in France in 1957, 1959, 1960 and 1961. In several texts, amongst which an article published in the magazine “Derrière le miroir” in 1961, he described those long sittings, the artist and the model trying to mutually exhaust each other. The work on Yanaihara’s portrait enabled Giacometti to push to the limit his search for “copying a head exactly as one sees it”. This painting presents a thick pictorial layer, especially around the face, a sign of the insistence of the artist on that precise spot on the canvas. The size of the head was reduced during the work, while the strokes of the bust almost disappear in the dense grey surface of the background. In the middle of these dark tones, small lighter strokes quickly define the volumes of the chin, the nose and the forehead of the model. The particularly evanescent aspect of the model allows us to suppose it is a portrait made from memory – a recurrent practise in Giacometti’s work, especially in his series of portraits of Yanaihara – or else a portrait started in the presence of the model and completed from memory, probably in 1959. This painting is not dated or signed and does not seem to have been exhibited in the artist’s lifetime.

No inscription

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Annette Giacometti
Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

2001 Alberto Giacometti : Porträts, Apolda (Germany), Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde, from June 17th to September 16th 2001
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kamakura (Japan), The Museum of Modern Art, from June 3rd to July 30th 2006, no. III-8
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. III-8
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Sakura (Japan), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, from October 10th to December 3rd 2006, no. III-8
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. 35
2008 En perspective, Giacometti, Caen (France), Musée des Beaux-Arts, from May 17th to August 31st 2008
2008 Le visage qui s'efface, Toulon (France), Conseil Général du Var, from September 20th to November 23rd 2008
2012 Giacometti, Memory and Presence, Charlotte, NC (United States Of America), Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, from August 31st 2012 to January 21st 2013
2015 Alberto Giacometti au Fonds Hélène et Edouard Leclerc, Landerneau (France), Fonds Hélène & Edouard Leclerc, from June 14th to October 25th 2015
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, D'après le modèle (Prague)., Prague (Czech Republic), Veletržní palác, from July 18th to December 1st 2019
2021 Alberto Giacometti. Une rétrospective. Le réel merveilleux., MONACO (Monaco), Grimaldi Forum Monaco, from July 3rd to August 29th 2021
2022 Sophie Ristelhueber, Paris, Institut Giacometti, from September 27th to November 30th 2022

Alberto Giacometti : Porträts, Kleve : Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2001, p. 71, ill. p. 71
Véronique WIESINGER, Toshio YAMANASHI (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Tokyo : The Tokyo Shimbun, 2006, cat. no. III-8, p. 68, ill. p. 69
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), L'atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Paris : Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, 2007 / Paris : Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2007, cat. no. 35, p. 196, pl. 332 et 350, ill. p. 203 et 217
Véronique WIESINGER, En perspective, Giacometti, Lyon : Fage Editions, 2008, p. 133, ill. p. 23, 58, 63 & 133