From Library Journal
The centenary of Alberto Giacometti's birth last year heralded a number of exhibitions of this much-beloved master's work. This title by Peppiatt (Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma) accompanies an eponymous show touring European museums, focusing on Giacometti's most productive and artistically mature years. The sculptor-painter spent the duration of World War II languishing in his native Switzerland, modeling plaster figures so profoundly attenuated that when he returned to a liberated Paris, he was able to smuggle three years' of work in matchboxes in his jacket pocket. Once he was happily reestablished in his tiny Montparnasse studio, the sculptor began making the tall, gaunt figures he's best known for today. Although lacking the comprehensive scope of the catalog of the 2001 Giacometti retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, this book distills the artist's most interesting aspects, making an already thoroughly examined life seem freshly compelling. This is achieved partly by including four pieces of the artist's own surreal essays and poetry, in which his struggle with his vision's clash with reality is foregrounded. One of the better titles available on this important 20th-century figure, this is recommended for academic and larger public library collections. Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., CACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Choice
[D]iscusses Giacometti's return to Paris from exile…with emphasis on both the work themselves and the individuals who informed his life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Alberto Giacometti, one of the foremost artists of the twentieth century, created sculptures and paintings of stark and haunting beauty. Now, in the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, this book celebrates his genius, tracing his development from the tiny sculptures he made during World War II to the characteristically emaciated figures of his mature style." "Michael Peppiatt gives an account of the crucial moment when Giacometti returned from his wartime exile in Geneva to his beloved Paris, a city traumatized by the war but receptive to new movements and ideas. He describes how Giacometti's way of seeing life - and his way of working - underwent several dramatic transformations during this period." This book is the catalogue for an exhibition to be held at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, England, and at the Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne, Switzerland.

FROM THE CRITICS

Choice

[D]iscusses Giacometti's return to Paris from exile...with emphasis on both the work themselves and the individuals who informed his life.

Library Journal