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Diego Seated in the Studio

A work made of oil on canvas.
© 2018 Succession Giacometti / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1950

Artist:

Alberto Giacometti
Swiss, 1901–1966

About this artwork

After 1925 Alberto Giacometti painted only intermittently, but in the aftermath of World War II, he returned to the canvas. Responding to a visionary experience in which he saw human heads transform into petrified, fixed objects in space, the artist began to make countless portraits from life. Most frequently, he used his wife and, as in this painting, his brother Diego as models. Giacometti was not interested in physiognomic accuracy but used a vortex of lines and a restricted palette to bring forth the abstract essence of his sitters. Often enclosing his subjects within “frames” painted on the canvas, he further isolated these dematerialized, solitary figures, evoking the melancholic existence of the postwar individual.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Alberto Giacometti

Title

Diego Seated in the Studio

Place

Switzerland (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1950

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

72.9 × 60 cm (28 11/16 × 23 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

A Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation

Reference Number

1999.368

Copyright

© 2018 Succession Giacometti / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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