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Walking man II

Alberto Giacometti • Sculpture, 1960, 188×27.9×111.7 cm
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About the artwork
This artwork was added since it is referred to in the materials below
Art form: Sculpture
Subject and objects: Portrait, Genre scene
Style of art: Expressionism
Materials: Bronze
Date of creation: 1960
Size: 188×27.9×111.7 cm
Artwork in selections: 26 selections

Description of the artwork «Walking man II»

In the second half of the twentieth century, the work of art is considered relevant, if it is necessary to spend some time to identify the intended object. Better still read the title of the work or the explanation of the curator. And even better than trying to correlate is represented with any object of the real world. Contemporary art at this time in the abstract.

Europe after the Second world war devastated, destroyed, drained of blood. People are left with all their injuries, irreparable loss, loneliness, shame and despair. And abstraction is often the only language suitable for talking about the crash. Alberto Giacometti returned to Paris after the war with several matchbooks - boxes of these sculptures over the past few years of war (1, 2, 3). Tiny human figures, faceless and fragile, almost extinct. But in the next few years they will start to grow.

Giacometti was able to restore the image of the human figure in sculpture. His famous rope human figures, with hands and feet frozen in the exact gesture that spoke of pain and fear of death is not quieter than the colour stains on the canvases of abstract expressionists.

"I always felt living in fragility. As if he needed every second of the incredible energy to continue to exist. Always under threat of collapse. There is only one fear extinction"- told Giacometti in an interview. And the fragility of living he expressed in specific proportions of the human body so a person can see in the misty haze at a great distance, rostkoviana the background of a photograph in the reflection in the wet asphalt. When a piece is eaten dense, tangible space. Reducing the volume of the figure, Giacometti increases the distance between her and the others between her and the viewer. Slimmer figure - neobyatny the volume of the void around.

Your energy for the existence of male and female figures from Giacometti prepared in various ways. The female is stationary, focused and collected, it does not disappear of its own inner core and firm base that is disproportionately large, stable legs (1, 2). Men - always in motion: step, pointevenfall is an action, too. Existentialist writers seen in the sculptures of Giacometti material embodiment of its philosophy. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote an essay for the exhibition of the sculptor in America, said that Giacometti manages to convey pure gesture, it is the most elusive, what shall become of man, if you remove all the material.

It seemed unbelievable breakthrough, a new way of seeing, because, of all the languages of art the sculpture is the least adapted for the transmission of intangible. Conditional words, alliteration, rhyme in literature or paint, color, shape in painting, it is absolutely invisible, intangible sounds and intervals in the music of art suitable for speculative meanings more than clay, bronze, plaster. Materials, which by their nature cannot be deprived of the volume.

Giacometti sculpted his outstretched ghostly people who look like pencil drawings in the air, gradually imposing on a metal rod and small pieces of clay from top to bottom, from bottom to top. Bronze casting can be seen, these bumps are increasing clay mass, and even fingerprints of the sculptor. And said that never considers the sculpture finished - just one day she catches the eye of the visitor in the workshop, insistent to the dealer. As soon as someone saw the work - it is possible to postpone and start the next from the same place. Continue to mold and move - constantly endangered to turn into pure gesture.

Author: Anna Sidelnikova
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