Giacometti at the Guggenheim: 1st Major US Retrospective Stretches both Sculpture and Canvas

The Swiss born artist Alberto Giacometti (b 1901-66) is linked with his elongated, minimalistic raw figure sculptures.  This exhibit displays Giacometti's portraiture paintings, busts and ornamental masks.  Much of his earlier works were influenced by New Guinea, Africa and oceanic art.  In this 1st major US Retrospective, Giacometti's genius for reductionist art is abundant.  A delightful surprise are his earlier paintings and abstractions in a surrealist mode (1920s-early 30s).  I found his body of work to maintain a unifying theme of stillness; a dreamlike unperturbed quality.  Despite his drawings & paintings having sketchy and erratic lines, the subjects appear formidable.  In both his paintings & sculptures the artists' hand is felt continuously at work molding and extracting.  The ambiguous dark palette lends a quality of indeterminate race or ethnicity.  However there are definite distinctions between the sexes.  It would seem he gravitated towards the female form and bestows these with eminent grace & strength.  His wife, Annette Arm was his constant muse and omnipresent model.  The first portrait is of his wife Anne ('42) is made in charcoals & oils with a black/grey palette.  "In the course of my work, I have eliminated 1 color after another, and what has remained is gray, gray, gray." The first gallery contains 3 sculptures; a bust, a male figure and a towering female figure.  These 3 works were submitted and then withdrawn by the artist for an art installation in an NYC Public Plaza.  On reflection he commented "A single female standing might have been the most effective monument of all."   Giacometti's iconic thin figures represent emaciated, displaced survivors of WWII.  He constructed these sculptures from the mid 40s for the next 2 decades until his death at age 64.  Without referencing history, they felt more like pillars of resiliency & dignity.  One large male figure appears to be pointing an accusatory finger.  "The Nose," a hanging head with a grossly distended nose resembles a gun and is a ghoulish work.   A side gallery is work by Brancusi.  It's noteworthy to draw comparisons between these artists.  As you ascend the earlier sculptures reflect Picasso's, and Henri Lavens' influence.  Giacometti had long lasting friendships with prominent poets and theologians Andre Breton, Jean Genet and Isaku Yannibara.  Giacometti philosophies, "All the sculptures of today like those of the past will end 1 day in pieces.  So it is important to fashion ones work carefully in its smallest recess and charge every particle of matter with life."