Alberto Giacometti alla Kunsthaus Zurich

La Kunsthaus Zurich ha inaugurato da pochi giorni una stupenda mostra su Alberto Giacometti, che durerà fino all'autunno del 2026; successivamente sarà oggetto di una nuova curatela e sarà notevolmente ampliata, estendendosi su quattro sale dell'edificio rinnovao dallo studio Chipperfield.

 

Una mostra che raccoglie opere chiave del periodo surrealista, nonché di sculture di fama mondiale degli anni successivi al 1945. È  concepita per essere il punto di partenza di un progetto più ampio, infatti nell'autunno del 2026, la mostra sarà rinnovata e notevolmente ampliata per presentare l'intera opera artistica dell'artista in quattro sale consecutive.

UN GRANDE DEL XX SECOLO

Alberto Giacometti è uno dei principali artisti del XX secolo. Nato nel 1901 in Val Bregaglia, nei Grigioni, lavorò come scultore, pittore e disegnatore a Parigi, raggiungendo la fama mondiale. Giacometti riveste un'importanza fondamentale anche per il Kunsthaus Zürich: grazie ai prestiti a lungo termine della Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, la fondazione ospita la più importante collezione museale al mondo dedicata alle sue opere.

Il patrimonio della fondazione comprende opere di ogni fase della sua carriera, e al Kunsthaus è completato da opere provenienti dalla collezione del Kunsthaus e da altre di proprietà dei Kunstfreunde Zürich. Fondata a Zurigo nel 1965, la Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung si basa su importanti acquisizioni provenienti dalla collezione dell'industriale americano G. David Thompson e da opere donate dallo stesso Alberto Giacometti poco prima della sua morte. Nel corso degli anni è stata costantemente ampliata, in particolare grazie alle cospicue donazioni di Bruno Giacometti, fratello dell'artista, e di sua moglie Odette.

 

TRASFERIMENTO NELL'EDIFICIO CHIPPERFIELD

Dopo cinque anni di esposizione nell'edificio Müller del 1976, Giacometti si trasferirà nell'edificio Chipperfield da febbraio 2026. La mostra inaugurale, allestita in due sale al secondo piano, si concentra sulle principali opere surrealiste e sulle sculture iconiche del dopoguerra. Dall'autunno 2026 in poi, questa presentazione sarà rinnovata e ampliata per presentare l'intera opera di Giacometti in quattro sale, dalle prime creazioni al suo periodo tardo.

UNA VITA D'ARTISTA TRA PARIGI E LA VAL BREGAGLIA 

Incoraggiato fin da piccolo dal padre Giovanni, Alberto Giacometti ha sviluppato il suo linguaggio artistico unico a Parigi. I suoi oggetti e sculture innovativi lo collocano saldamente all'interno dell'avanguardia surrealista. Durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale, tornò a un'intensa esplorazione della figura umana e sviluppò lo stile inconfondibile che gli portò fama mondiale: figure alte e fragili e busti sorprendenti che ridefiniscono il rapporto tra essere umano e spazio. Eppure, nonostante la sua carriera internazionale, Giacometti mantenne stretti legami con la regione della Val Bregaglia.

UN NUOVO PRESTITO SPETTACOLARE

Un momento clou della mostra inaugurale è la prima presentazione di un nuovo prestito dalla Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung e da una collezione privata svizzera: un bronzo raffigurante l'opera chiave del Surrealismo 'L'Objet invisible' (1934/35). Questa celebre scultura raffigura una figura femminile stilizzata, le cui mani sembrano reggere un oggetto invisibile; è un'opera centrale del modernismo che ci permette di cogliere l'invisibile e l'ignoto.

La presentazione è completata da una selezione di dipinti di compagni e contemporanei di Giacometti provenienti dalla collezione del Kunsthaus di Zurigo.

GIACOMETTI 2026

La mostra, che è stata inaugura a febbraio 2026, è esplicitamente concepita come una rampa di lancio. Con il grande ampliamento della mostra nell'autunno del 2026, il Kunsthaus Zürich si posiziona come centro internazionale leader per la ricerca, la mediazione e la presentazione dell'opera di Alberto Giacometti, artista di fama mondiale con forti radici in Svizzera.

Tutte le foto sono viste dell'installazione presso il Kunsthaus Zürich, 2026 scatti di Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zurich © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2026, ProLitteris, Zurich

Giacometti a New York

Il Guggenheim di New York presenta per la stagione estiva una grande mostra antologica su Alberto Giacometti, con alcune delle sue opere più importanti. 

Evento organizzato con la Fondazione  Giacometti di Parigi, sponsor dell'evento la torinese Lavazza.

CS

From June 8 to September 12, 2018, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will present the work of the Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966)—the first major museum exhibition in the United States in more than 15 years dedicated to the Swiss-born artist. Installed within the museum’s rotunda, Giacometti examines this preeminent modernist who is renowned for the distinctive figurative sculptures that he produced in reaction to the trauma and anguish of World War II, including a series of elongated standing women, striding men, and expressive bust-length portraits. The exhibition encompasses the entirety of the artist’s career, featuring more than 175 sculptures, paintings, and drawings, some of which have never before been shown in the United States, as well as archival photographs and ephemera.

Giacometti is organized by Megan Fontanella, Curator, Modern Art and Provenance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Catherine Grenier, Director, Fondation Giacometti, Paris, with support provided by Mathilde Lecuyer-Maillé, Associate Curator, Fondation Giacometti, and Samantha Small, Curatorial Assistant, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

The exhibition underscores the historical relationship between the Guggenheim Museum and Giacometti. In 1955, in a temporary location, the Guggenheim organized the first-ever museum presentation of Giacometti’s work, which was also the earliest significant exhibition that the Guggenheim dedicated to sculpture. Under the leadership of then director James Johnson Sweeney, the museum brought key sculptures by Giacometti into its collection during this period in an effort to integrate the medium into its holdings and to support “the art of today.” In 1974, in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building, the Guggenheim organized a posthumous retrospective devoted to Giacometti. Beginning in the 1940s Peggy Guggenheim, Solomon’s niece, amassed Giacometti’s works along with examples of Surrealist and abstract art that would travel with her from New York to Europe and form the core of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, now part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Visitors to this fresh presentation on Giacometti will have the opportunity to view works from across his career, which largely was spent in France and which spanned several decades and various mediums. Examples of his early production reveal his engagement with Cubism and Surrealism as well as African, Oceanic, and Cycladic art, and reflect interactions with writers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Samuel Beckett. The exhibition’s selection of Giacometti’s paintings and drawings demonstrates his attempt to capture the essence of humanity-an endeavor that is also apparent in his incessant sculptural investigations of the human body. Sculptures of various heights will be installed on pedestals in the round or set back into the museum’s walls. Displayed in vitrines, a number of pocket-size figures and heads created immediately before World War II explore spatial concerns of perspective and distance that would become paramount to his work. Giacometti’s studio practice, a particular focus of the exhibition, is shown through rarely exhibited plaster sculptures. The artist painted some of these works or later cast them in bronze, but others’ intended medium was plaster. Rich historical photographs and ephemera, such as journals and sketchbooks containing drawings, also provide insight into Giacometti’s process and document his artistic development.

Giacometti features selections from the Fondation Giacometti and celebrated works from the Guggenheim collection, such as the bronze sculptures Spoon Woman (1926; cast 1954) and The Nose (1949; cast 1964). Loans from private and public collections further supplement the exhibition. Other highlights include a group of three sculptures from the late 1950s related to Giacometti’s unrealized project for the Chase Manhattan Bank plaza in New York, a major monument designed for an urban public space. Installed in the museum’s High Gallery, these large-scale works embody three motifs Giacometti explored during last 20 years of his life: standing female nudes, walking male figures, and bust-length portraits of family and friends. The final section of the exhibition, on the museum’s top ramp, presents footage from a film by Ernst Scheidegger, a friend of the artist, showing Giacometti at work in his longtime Paris studio.

A catalogue will be published to accompany Giacometti. Edited by Megan Fontanella and Karole P. B. Vail, Director, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the volume features essays by Valerie J. Fletcher and Catherine Grenier and graphic design by Gavillet & Cie. A range of programs will be offered in conjunction with Giacometti, with details to be posted at guggenheim.org/calendar.

Giacometti is made possible by Lavazza. Additional support is provided by Northern Trust. The Leadership Committee for this exhibition is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Linda Macklowe, Cochair, as well as Acquavella Galleries, Larry Gagosian, FX and Natasha de Mallmann, Hauser & Wirth, Per Skarstedt, Ulla Dreyfus-Best, Grande Albergo Excelsior Vittoria – Sorrento, kamel mennour, Gigi and Andrea Kracht, La Prairie, Lévy Gorvy, Richard Gray Gallery, Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG, Thomas Gibson Fine Art, and those who wish to remain anonymous. Funding is also provided by Christie’s and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. It is co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Fondation Giacometti, Paris.

Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim network that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (opened 1997), and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). The Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that celebrate contemporary art, architecture, and design within and beyond the walls of the museum, including the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. More information about the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.

The Fondation Giacometti, Paris, is a private institution of public interest recognized by the French state, established in December 2003. Its goal is to preserve, promote, and present the work of Alberto Giacometti. With over 300 sculptures, 90 paintings, and thousands of works on paper, it possesses the richest collection of artworks by the artist in the world: a collection that it is responsible for conserving, restoring, and enriching. The Foundation also has a remarkable collection of photographs and archival materials. A large proportion of this heritage has remained inaccessible to the public since the artist’s death in 1966. In 2014, the Foundation launched a vast exhibition program in France and abroad, designed to reach new audiences. In 2018, it will co-organize a number of major exhibitions of Giacometti’s work, including presentations at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (February 8-May 13, 2018); Beyeler Foundation, Basel (Bacon Giacometti, April 29-September 2, 2018); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (June 8-September 12, 2018); Musée Maillol, Paris (September 14, 2018-January 20, 2019); and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (October 19, 2018-February 24, 2019).

guggenheim.org/giacometti
#giacometti

Foto di Jean Mounicq Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1961