Facts about Alberto Giacometti
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Giacometti's plaster models were often destroyed or left unfinished, with only a fraction cast into bronze, meaning many of his original creative ideas exist solely as photographs or fragmentary documentation.
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Giacometti's 1947 sculpture series was inspired by his daily walks through the streets of Paris, where he observed how distance and perspective transformed the appearance of human figures into thin, isolated forms.
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Giacometti's brother Diego collaborated with him on nearly all his major bronze sculptures, creating the armatures and casting techniques that made the artist's vision technically possible for over fifty years.
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Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti suffered a near-fatal car accident in 1938 that left him with lifelong physical pain and profoundly influenced his artistic vision toward fragmented, skeletal forms.
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Giacometti's fascination with the human head led him to create over 4,000 portrait drawings between 1935 and 1965, often completing multiple studies of the same sitter in single sessions.
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In 1962, Giacometti created over 4,000 drawings and paintings while simultaneously producing his sculptural works, demonstrating an extraordinary creative output during his final productive decade.
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During World War II, Giacometti spent nine years in Nazi-occupied Paris creating increasingly thin, elongated figures that reflected the scarcity and human suffering surrounding him.
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Standing at just 60 centimeters tall, Giacometti's iconic bronze sculpture L'homme qui marche I sold for 104.9 million dollars in 2010, making it one of the most expensive artworks ever auctioned.