(1901–1966)

The Kunsthalle Wien will continue its series on classical modernist art, which began with “Oskar Schlemmer” (1994) and “Surrealism in Spain 1929–1939” (1995), with a comprehensive Alberto Giacometti retrospective.

The oeuvre of the Swiss artist who lived in Paris will be presented in a survey including more than 250 works. The exhibition will focus on the surrealist period, Giacometti’s preoccupation with the studio and his life-long use of friends and family members as motifs in his sculpture, painting and drawing.

Numerous public collections (Tate Gallery London, Centre Pompidou Paris, Musée de Grenoble) and private lenders (above all, the Giacometti Foundation in Zurich, the Maeght collection in Paris) and galleries (Kornfeld in Berne, Krugier in Geneva, Klewan in Munich) will contribute to the exhibition. In addition to well-known main artworks, some discoveries never shown before will be exhibited.

The exhibition was planned together with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. A comprehensive catalogue will be published on this occasion. In addition to essays written by Giacometti experts such as James Lord and Reinhold Hohl the publication will also include a number of interviews with contemporaries of Giacometti who will give their own personal reports of the atmosphere in the artist’s studio and his way of working. Parallel to the retrospective at the Kunsthalle on Karlsplatz, the Kunsthalle located in the Museumsquartier (hall F) will present a photo exhibition of Giacometti and two film portraits by the magnum-photographer Ernst Scheidegger.