The Cube and the Face: Around a Sculpture by Alberto Giacometti (THINK ART)

Alberto Giacometti’s 1934 __Cube__ stands apart for many as atypical of the Swiss artist, the only abstract sculptural work in a wide oeuvre that otherwise had as its objective the exploration of reality. With __The Cube and the Face,__ renowned French art historian and philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman has conducted a careful analysis of __Cube,__ consulting the artist’s sketches, etchings, texts, and other sculptural works in the years just before and after __Cube__ was created. __Cube,__ he finds, is indeed exceptional—a work without clear stylistic kinship to the works that came before or after it. At the same time, Didi-Huberman shows, __Cube__ marks the transition between the artist’s surrealist and realist phases and contains many elements of Giacometti’s aesthetic consciousness, including his interest in dimensionality, the relation of the body to geometry, and the portrait—or what Didi-Huberman terms “abstract anthropomorphism.” Drawing on Freud, Bataille, Leiris, and others Giacometti counted as influence, Didi-Huberman presents fans and collectors of Giacometti’s art with a new approach to transitional work. "Alberto Giacometti's 1943 Cube stands apart for many as atypical of the Swiss artist, the only abstract sculptural work in a wide œvre that otherwise had as its objective the exploration of reality. With The Cube and the Face, renowned French art historian and philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman has conducted a careful analysis of Cube, consulting the artist's sketches, etchings, texts, and other sculptural works in the years just before and after Cube was created. Cube, he finds, is indeed exceptional--a work without clear stylistic kinship to the works that came before or after it. At the same time, Didi-Huberman shows, Cube marks the transition between the artist's surrealist and realist phases and contains many elements of Giacometti's aesthetic consciousness, including his interest in dimensionality, the relation of the body to geometry, and the portrait--or what Didi-Huberman terms "abstract anthropomorphism." Drawing on Freud, Bataille, Leiris, and others whom Giacometti counted as influences, Didi-Huberman presents fans and collectors of Giacometti's art with a new approach to transitional work"--Back cover Alberto Giacometti's 1934 Cube stands apart as a Swiss artist, the abstract sculptural work that otherwise had as its objective the exploration of reality. Drawing on Freud, Bataille, Leiris, and others whom Giacometti counted as influences, this book presents fans and collectors of Giacometti's art with an approach to transitional work.