Fondation Giacometti

"Not to talk of painted sculptures", Alberto Giacometti explained to his gallerist, Pierre Matisse, in 1950, "the colour is part of the sculpture, [the sculptures] are painted with oil like the paintings".
It was the desire to make ‘living’ figures that prompted the artist to take up his palette and brushes to ‘breathe life’ into his sculptures, small as well as big.

For the first time, the Institut Giacometti is presenting the bulk of its collection of painted plasters, bringing together emblematic works such as Stele, Women of Venice and Figurine in a cage, revealing to the public a moving and secret part of the artist's work. At every stage of his career, Alberto Giacometti demonstrated his desire to forge an intimate link between sculpture and painting, by painting some of his plaster and bronze sculptures, and even going so far as to paint over finished works installed in an exhibition.