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Lot Essay
"While working I have never thought of the theme of solitude,” wrote Giacometti. “I have absolutely no intention of being an artist of solitude. Moreover, I must add that as a citizen and a thinking being I believe that all life is the opposite of solitude, for life consists of a fabric of relations with others. There is so much talk about the malaise throughout the world and about existential anguish, as if it were something new. All people have felt that, and at all periods" (quoted in J. Lord, Giacometti: A Biography, New York, 1985, pp. 309-310).
Conceived in 1946, the present work was created by Giacometti as a tribute to Gabriel Péri, a French Communist journalist and politician who was a member of the French Resistance. Killed by the Nazis in 1941, Péri became known as a legend and a celebrated hero, memorialized by Louis Aragon’s poem “La Légende de Gabriel Péri.” The full-scale monument was unfortunately never realized, but the bronze edition in this scale was executed at a later date in an edition of eight.
While this sculpture is an important tribute to Péri, it is also recognized in the context of Giacometti’s oeuvre as one of the artist’s first explorations on the theme of the walking man. The single figure is caught mid-stride, a tombstone-like structure towering over him as he walks towards the gravestone of a fallen friend. The figure’s facial characteristics are intentionally undefined, such that he relates to every man in society, rather than one individual.
Conceived in 1946, the present work was created by Giacometti as a tribute to Gabriel Péri, a French Communist journalist and politician who was a member of the French Resistance. Killed by the Nazis in 1941, Péri became known as a legend and a celebrated hero, memorialized by Louis Aragon’s poem “La Légende de Gabriel Péri.” The full-scale monument was unfortunately never realized, but the bronze edition in this scale was executed at a later date in an edition of eight.
While this sculpture is an important tribute to Péri, it is also recognized in the context of Giacometti’s oeuvre as one of the artist’s first explorations on the theme of the walking man. The single figure is caught mid-stride, a tombstone-like structure towering over him as he walks towards the gravestone of a fallen friend. The figure’s facial characteristics are intentionally undefined, such that he relates to every man in society, rather than one individual.