Alberto Giacometti

This early work by Alberto Giacometti, the artist produced during his new talent period, is introduced by Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl.

After inital studies as painter and illustrator, Alberto Giacometti studied scuplting at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under Antoine Bourdelle from 1922 to 1927. In 1925 at the Salon de Tuileries and during Giacometti's first public participation in an exhibition, Bourdelles expressed his displeasure with the cubistic sculpture “Torso“ with the words: “This is something you make for yourself at home, but it should not be shown“.
The Marl sculpture “Torse de femme“ can be understood as the radical artistic continuation of cubistic problems and is part of a series of disk sculptures that Giacometti created between 1927 and 1929. Two circular, concave depressions of different size are executed with precision, while the manner of etched lines expresses something spontaneous, something almost random. The visual harmony of these meagre forms makes it possible to associate the female form which, against all “plastic conventions“, is not a spatial displacement but a complete inmaterial abstraction. The image-carrying negative relief slab is at the same time image-space and background.
Different levels of meaning resound. The body of the woman in the form of a wide open bowl can be seen as a symbol of fertility. At the same time the small circle on top and the small circle in the centre are reminders of the Moon circling Earth. A cosmic dimension is implied. 

Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966)
Torse de femme (Female Torso)
ca. 1928
Bronze, 36 x 17 x 7,5 cm
Signature (left side of base): A. Giacometti
Foundry stamp (rear side of base) Susse Fondeur Paris
Numbered on the inside of the base in white colour: 1/6