Giacometti in the Prado, Exhibition, Museo del Prado: Madrid: 2 April-7 July 2019

This is archived material. It is for reference purposes only.

"Giacometti in the Prado" is one of the top notch exhibitions that will mark the bicentenary of the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Have you ever seen a tall figurative sculpture? A stretched human form clad with deep thumb depressions and other course textures? It was probably a Giacometti. A friend of his once said that if Giacometti decided to sculpt you, "he would make your head look like the blade of a knife." He is the artist most commonly identified with the Existentialist movement. His historical importance springs from his defence of figuration at a time when the hype was abstract art.

In the 1920s, Giacometti moved to Paris and there became entangled in the surrealist and cubist art movements of the time, and he later became to be regarded as one of the leading surrealist sculptures. His sculptures of people show this influence in their bizarre, elongated forms but his fascination with the expression of the human form can also be seen in his portraits. They are both intense and very personal.

If you aren’t familiar with his work this exhibition -one amongst the various activities that mark the Prado Museum's bicentenary- is a perfect introduction (and so much more). The show, curated by Carmen Giménez, Stephen and Nan Swid Curator of 20thCentury Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York,  will present the work of Alberto Giacometti in dialogue with key works from the museum's collection.

Museo del Prado, Villanueva Building

Paseo del Prado, s/n, 28014 Madrid

 © Alberto Giacometti.  Hombre que camina II. 1960. Riehen/Basilea, Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Collection. VEGAP Madrid 2018
© Alberto Giacometti. Hombre que camina II. 1960. Riehen/Basilea, Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Collection. VEGAP Madrid 2018

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