Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss artist born 10th October 1901
His Father was the post impressionist painter, Giovanni Giacometti, a second cousin was the Symbolist painter, Augusto Giacometti and his Godfather, the Fauve painter ,Cuno Amiet.

 

He is probably best known for his thin stationary or striding figures, but these were only a part of his response to the human form. He painted and sculpted portraits often drawing on those around him for his models; In particular his brothers, Diego and Bruno and his wife Annette. He also sculpted and painted Isaku Yanaihara and Elie Lotar. There was also another model known only as Caroline.
In 1961 he created a design for Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot.

 

His very personal reductive a approach to both his sculpture and his painting seems to have been a demanding & constant struggle to portray the reality that he felt and saw, as he battled with more than one illness.

 

He died 11 January 1966, and a bronze version of his final work was placed on his brother’s grave by his brother Diego.

 

A poem by Giacometti dated 1965:

It all means little, All the painting, sculpture, drawing, writing, or rather literature, it all has it’s place and nothing more

 

An attempt is everything,
How marvellous!

 

Various sources
Stuart Williamson