Alberto Giacometti

• Thu 05/11/09 - Sun 21/02/10
• Musée Rath | Place Neuve
• Open from 10 am to 5 pm; Wednesday from 12 noon to 9 pm; closed Monday
• Admission CHF 10.– I CHF 5.–
  free of charge up to age 18
• Preview Wed 04/11/09 18h00

• Curated by :
• Nadia Schneider

For the first time in Geneva, a large retrospective exhibition is dedicated to the major 20th century artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) at the City of Geneva’s Musée d'Art et d'Histoire. Numerous sculptures, paintings, drawings and documents illustrate the evolution of his work from the early surrealistic objects to the large and lengthy figures of his maturity. Originally from the Graubünden area of Switzerland, he chose Paris as his city of adoption while keeping close links to his country of birth. He lived nevertheless from 1942 to 1945 in Geneva, which had become a refuge and a place of intellectual exchange for many Parisian artists and writers. There he was a member of the circle around Albert Skira, the editor of the magazine Labyrinthe, to which he contributed three substantial written texts. It was also in Geneva that he met his future wife Annette. However, his time here also coincided with a difficult period in his artistic career, representing even a fundamental creative crisis. Indeed, ensconced in his modest room at the Hotel de Rive that served as his workshop, he laboured entire days without producing anything more substantial than tiny figurines only a few centimetres high. Presented in collaboration with the Alberto Giacometti Foundation of Zurich, the exhibit is centred around this Geneva period – now recognised as of fundamental importance in the history of sculpture – while also giving an overview of his life’s work.