A major biography of one of the great sculptors of our time. Lord,
who turned a chance encounter with Giacometti in 1952 into a
lifelong obsession, here gives us a story of a life lived purely
for art, and in the process he has gone far towards giving the
reader an understanding of the creative process itself. His
approach is warts-and-all. And Giacometti's warts - his
incomprehensible mean-spiritedness to the women in his life,
particularly his wife, his sexual obsessiveness, his destructive
tantrums - stand out here. But they are the warts of genius. Lord
mixes the documentary with the spiritual in recounting those
momentary flashes when Giacometti would suddenly, as if transfixed,
see a whole new way of viewing his world. How quickly, then, his
sculptures would adapt to his new vision, be it Cubist or Surreal,
or his own elongated, flat-planed figures (or portions of figures -
as in The Leg). Lord does not pretend to have been an intimate of
Giacometti's. But one gets the distinct impression upon reading
this biography that he nevertheless got a rare glimpse into the
soul of a genius. Along the way, we get many little
side-biographies of the great cultural figures with whom Giacometti
shared his days and nights - Sartre, Genet, Picasso, and many more.
Lord has written, all in all, a much more personal view of
Giacometti than have the more conventional biographers, such as
Jacques Dupin. The result is a definitive biography. (Kirkus
Reviews)
The definitive biography of a fascinating and enigmatic figure
'Succeeds in every way as one of the most readable, fascinating and
informative documents, not just on an artist, but on art and
artists in general' WASHINGTON TIMES 'The most moving biography of
a modern artist I've read' NEWSWEEK Alberto Giacometti is one of
the best-known artists of the twentieth century. Born in a Swiss
village, he moved to pre-war Paris and went on to play a leading
role in the art world, alongside characters such as Picasso,
Balthus, Samuel Beckett and Sartre. His passionate and strange life
reflects the genius of his works - his gaunt and haunting
sculptures and his unsettling paintings. As someone who was
personally acquainted with Giacometti and his peers, and who has
consolidated his personal knowledge with extensive research, James
Lord is uniquely qualified to write Giacometti's biography.
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