Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti was born October 10, 1901, in Borgonovo, Switzerland. From 1919 to 1920 he studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and sculpture and drawing at the École des Arts et Métiers in Geneva. In 1920 he travelled to Italy, where he was deeply affected by African and Egyptian art and by the masterpieces of Giotto and Tintoretto. In 1922 Giacometti settled in Paris.

In 1927 he moved into a studio with his brother, Diego, his lifelong companion and assistant. In 1928 Giacometti met André Masson, and by 1930 he was a participant in the Surrealist circle. His first solo show took place in 1932 at the Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris. In 1934, his first American solo exhibition opened at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York. During the early 1940s, he became friends with Simone de Beauvoir, Pablo Picasso and Jean-Paul Sartre. From 1942, Giacometti lived in Geneva, where he associated with the publisher Albert Skira.

Giacometti was honoured with retrospectives at the Arts Council Gallery, London, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. He received the Sculpture Prize at the 1961 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, and the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the 1962 Venice Biennale. In 1965, Giacometti exhibitions were organised by the Tate Gallery, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Giacometti died in January 1966, in Chur, Switzerland.