Fondation Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti used to draw and write on all kinds of supports, books, magazines, newspapers and paper tablecloths. The drawings made on newspapers and tablecloths, of which countless copies are known but which, for the most part, were not kept by the artist himself, show again and again Giacometti’s work on the head, face and profile. The shape has become generic, mixing memories of his most regular model, his brother Diego, whose features disappear in the superimposition of traces left by a pencil that does not leave the support during the making. It is therefore difficult to identify the persons represented and one should rather see here studies of a man’s head. On this piece of paper tablecloth, Giacometti has traced with a blue ballpoint pen several busts and full face heads. On each, the artist insisted on the outlines that envelop the face, and show the sockets by highlighting the gaze. The insistence with which the artist went over the shapes with the ballpoint pen gives these drawings a hypnotic character that reinforces the frontal nature of the poses, and reveals the obsession the artist had for the subject. Giacometti also depicted, in the bottom left, a female bust, perhaps Caroline, the model who sat for the artist from 1958. This type of drawing, made in the restaurant, was given sometimes by the artist to his friends when they were present, and at other times kept by Alberto’s wife, Annette, though a large number disappeared.

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Sale Sotheby's London London (United Kingdom), February 6th, 2008, lot n ° 218

1978 Alberto Giacometti (Japan), Papier Galerie, from 14th to January 28th 1978

Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper, London : Sotheby's London, 2008, lot no. 218, p. 172, ill. p. 172