Spoon Woman

1926–27 (cast 1954)

Alberto Giacometti
Swiss, 1901–1966

Evoking a female body through simplified shapes that suggest a head, shoulders, a chest, and a wide, concave womb, this sculpture was inspired by a ceremonial ladle created by the Dan communities of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire. These objects, known as a wakemia or wunkirmian, likewise incorporate anthropomorphic forms into their construction, and they were exhibited frequently in museums in Paris during the 1920s. Objects like these were of immense interest to European artists, including Alberto Giacometti, who appreciated their geometry, their literal rendering of bodily volumes, and the alternatives they presented to Western modes of modeling and carving.

Status: On View, Gallery 396
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Alberto Giacometti
Title: Spoon Woman
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.: 1926–1927
Medium: Bronze
Edition: 4 of 6
Dimensions: 146 × 52.1 × 25.4 cm (57 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 10 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Florene M. Schoenborn
Reference Number: 1971.880
Copyright: © 2018 Succession Giacometti / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

A. James Speyer, “Twentieth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture”, Apollo Vol. LXXXIV, Sept. 1966, 225.
Alicia Legg, 4 mestres contemporaneos: Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giocometti, Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon, exh. cat. (Sao Paulo: Museu de Arte, 1973), n.p. (ill.) as g/1 (Another edition)
Valerie Fletcher, Alberto Giacometti, 1901-1966, exh. cat. (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988), 75.
Stephanie D’Alessandro and Renée DeVoe Mertz, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 121 (color ill.), no cat. no.

Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from The Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.

Florene M. Schoenborn, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1971.

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.

Suggested Terms

On View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

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.

Medium

Edition

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

Copyright

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share