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”. In the vast series of paintings Giacometti made of Yanaihara, this one, original in its format, is the only one where the model is represented full-length, sitting on a chair in the studio. In his work by series on the same subject, Giacometti often made portraits from various distances of the seated model, concentrating his study on the head, the bust, or on the entire figure. Yanaihara took many photographs in the artist’s studio during the making of these portraits. These precious documents enable us to date this painting quite precisely since it is visible in its non-definitive state on photographs dating from 1957. Besides, a photograph taken by Robert Doisneau in December 1957, shows this painting in the artist’s studio in its definitive state. Not signed or dated, this portrait does not seem to have been exhibited in Giacometti’s lifetime.

No inscription

Annette GIACOMETTI
Succession Annette Giacometti
Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti

1994 Alberto Giacometti. Skulpturer. Mälningar. Teckningar, Malmö (Sweden), Malmö Konsthall, from October 29th 1994 to January 22nd 1995
1996 Hommage à Denise Colomb. Portraits d'artistes. Photographies. De Montparnasse à Saint-Germain-des-Prés, avec ses frères Pierre et Edouard Loeb. Peintures - Dessins - Sculptures, Tanlay (France), Centre d'Art de Tanlay, from May 18th to October 20th 1996
1998 Alberto Giacometti, Montréal (Canada), Musée des Beaux-Arts, from June 18th to October 18th 1998, no. 88
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kamakura (Japan), The Museum of Modern Art, from June 3rd to July 30th 2006, no. III-5
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Kobe (Japan), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, from August 8th to October 1st 2006, no. III-5
2006 Alberto Giacometti, Sakura (Japan), Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, from October 10th to December 3rd 2006, no. III-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. 32
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. 106
2010 Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Wolfsbourg (Germany), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, from November 20th 2010 to March 6th 2011, no. 28
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
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
2021 Alberto Giacometti. Une rétrospective. Le réel merveilleux., MONACO (Monaco), Grimaldi Forum Monaco, from July 3rd to August 29th 2021
2023 Alberto Giacometti: Beginning, again., Tel Aviv (Israel), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, from April 30th to October 7th 2023

Bijutsu Techo, Tokyo : Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, no. 700, january 1995, p. 281, ill. p. 281
Sune NORDGREN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Skulpturer. Mälningar. Teckningar, Stockholm : Raster Förlag, 1994, p. 51 et 219, ill. p. 51
Jean LEYMARIE, Hommage à Denise Colomb avec ses frères Pierre et Edouard Loeb, Portraits d'artistes. De Montparnasse à Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Tanlay : Centre d'Art de Tanlay, 1996, p. 136, ill. p. 45
Jean-Louis PRAT (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Montréal : Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1998, cat. no. 88, p. 102
Véronique WIESINGER, Toshio YAMANASHI (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Tokyo : The Tokyo Shimbun, 2006, cat. no. III-5, p. 67, ill. p. 67
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. 32, p. 198, pl. 333, ill. p. 203
Véronique WIESINGER, En perspective, Giacometti, Lyon : Fage Editions, 2008 / Paris : Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, 2008 / Caen : Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2008, p. 133, ill. p. 125 & 133
Véronique WIESINGER, Charlotte VAN LINGEN (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti, Harderwijk : D'jonge Hond, 2008 / Paris : Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, 2008 / Rotterdam : Kunsthal, 2008, cat. no. 106, ill. p. 144
Markus BRUDERLIN, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. Der Ursprung des Raumes, Ostfildern Ruit : Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010 / Wolfsbourg : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2010 / Salzbourg : Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg, 2010, p. 252, ill. p. 147
Markus BRUDERLIN, Toni STOOSS (under the direction of), Alberto Giacometti. The Origin of Space, Ostfildern Ruit : Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010 / Wolfsburg : Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2010, p. 252, ill. p. 147
Jan BLANC, Florence JAILLET, Dans l'atelier des artistes, Paris : Beaux Arts éditions / TTP Editions, 2011, ill. p. 224
Véronique WIESINGER (under the direction of), Giacometti, Sao Paulo : Cosac & Naify Ediçoes, 2012, ill. p. 262