Getting familiar with Giacometti

I'm in the Kunsthaus quite a lot, and usually end with a stroll through the permanent Giacometti exhibit - its right by the entrance. Familiarity with these pieces seems to be etching them into my subconscious, and I'm liking the artist more and more.

A few years ago I wouldn't have thought i'd be attracted to any sort of sculpture. This is one of the benefits of being able to experience artwork like this on a regular and casual basis. It gradually informs your opinion. Much different from the hectic exhibition experience when you feel obliged to gorge yourself on works at one sitting and end up only with indigestion instead of a pleasant aftertaste.

Something else strikes me about Giacometti. He is one of the few artists whose personal image is almost as familiar as his work. Another that springs to mind is Picasso. The reason for this I think is that they were all photographed by people like Cartier-Bresson during what seems now like a golden age of artistic collaboration. I have no idea what Damien Hirst looks like. Probably like any other grey suited businessman, because that is indeed what he is, like many of his contemporaries.

Giacomettis work and friendships span some of the best know movements and characters of the 20th century, Surrealism, Existentialism, Sartre, Eluard for example. On the surface he seems to be constantly experimenting and striving to find an artistic goal and I suppose most people recognise this as the spindly attenuated figures that are so well known. Looking at the span of his work on display in Zurich gives a much better impression of artistic cohesion throughout the periods of his life than you would think. There are obvious progressions and relationships, especially between the paintings and drawings and the sculpture. The one area where there seems to be a disjunction is with the earlier surrealist works, and indeed the break was more than artistic - he was excommunicated from the surrealist circle.