(b Borgonovo, nr. Stampa, 10 Oct. 1901; d Chur, 11 Jan. 1966). Swiss sculptor and painter, active mainly in Paris. He was the son of Giovanni Giacometti (1868–1933), a painter influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. After short periods at the École des Arts et Métiers, Geneva, and in Italy, he moved to Paris, where he worked under Bourdelle from 1922 to 1925. He abandoned naturalistic sculpture in 1925, however, and went through a period of restless experimentation. From 1930 to 1935 he participated in the Surrealist movement, developing a highly individual attenuated manner exemplified in the cage-like construction of The Palace at 4 a.m. (1933, MoMA, New York). In 1935, however, he abandoned Surrealism and began to work again from the model.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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