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Biography

(b Stampa, 16 Aug 1877; d Zurich, 9 July 1947). Painter and decorative artist, cousin of (1) Giovanni Giacometti. He displayed an early talent for drawing while still in secondary school in Schiers, near Chur. In 1894–7 he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, followed by four years in Paris. There he studied at the Ecole Normale d’Enseignement de Dessin under Eugène-Samuel Grasset, whose Art Nouveau designs based on plants inspired Giacometti to create abstract ... (view more)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

(b Stampa, 16 Aug 1877; d Zurich, 9 July 1947). Painter and decorative artist, cousin of (1) Giovanni Giacometti. He displayed an early talent for drawing while still in secondary school in Schiers, near Chur. In 1894–7 he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, followed by four years in Paris. There he studied at the Ecole Normale d’Enseignement de Dessin under Eugène-Samuel Grasset, whose Art Nouveau designs based on plants inspired Giacometti to create abstract line and colour patterns, such as Mountain Stream (1900; Chur, Bündner Kstmus.). Leaving Paris in 1901, he went to study early Renaissance painting in Florence, where he settled until 1915. While there he began painting large-scale colour abstractions in a lyrical or painterly mode. Although May Morning (Basle, Kstmus.) was later dated by the artist to 1910, other paintings indicate that the transition to abstraction occurred in 1912: Midsummer and Stampa (both Chur, Bündner Kstmus.) are recognizable images executed in a Fauvist mode, while Ascent of Piz Duan (Zurich, Ksthaus) of the same year crosses over into abstraction, as does Colouristic Fantasy (1913; St Gallen, Kstmus.). His paintings of 1914–17 are purely non-objective; their overall patternings consist of ‘explosions’ of pure colours in free-form compositions, whose nebulous forms suggest the infinities of both micro- and macrocosmic space, as in Chromatic Fantasy (1914; Zurich, Ksthaus), Summer Night (1917; New York, MOMA) and Fantasy on a Potato Blossom (1917; Chur, Bündner Kstmus.). These paintings, with their use of sophisticated, exuberant colour to create evocative or emotive effects, suggest comparisons with the early abstractions of Kandinsky, but Giacometti eschewed reliance on line, preferring instead more miasmic and stippled forms. He continued to create works in this style during the following decades, for example Memory of an Italian Primitive II (1927; Chur, Bündner Kstmus.). These paintings later earned him a place in history as one of the pioneers of abstraction, although during his lifetime he gained fame primarily through his decorative work. After settling in Zurich in 1915 he worked on many public commissions, particularly stained-glass windows and mosaics. His early abstractions were rediscovered through exhibitions in Switzerland in 1959, when they were perceived as having remarkable affinities with European Tachism and Art informel , as well as with American colour field painting, for example that of Rothko, Sam Francis and Clyfford Still. However, Giacometti’s lyrical colourist compositions had spiritual and symbolist intentions significantly different from post-war Abstract Expressionist styles.  (hide)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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