Diego Giacometti

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Diego Giacometti (* 15. November 1902 in Borgonovo GR , community Stampa , Switzerland ; † 15. July 1985 in Paris ) was a Swiss sculptor and designer . He was the younger brother of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti .

life and work

childhood and education

The former Piz Duan inn in Stampa, photo from 2010

Diego Giacometti was born in Borgonovo in Switzerland, a mountain village in Bergell near the Italian border. He was the second eldest son of four children of the painter Giovanni Giacometti and his wife Annetta, née Stampa (1871-1964). All three Giacometti brothers were active in the arts: Alberto and Diego in painting, sculpture and design, Bruno as an architect .

In the late autumn of 1903 the Giacomettis moved to Stampa in the Piz Duan inn, named after the nearby Piz Duan mountain , which was owned by the family and where Giovanni Giacomettis was born, and in 1906 they moved into an apartment that was the focus of the family for the next sixty years. Giovanni Giacometti converted the adjacent barn into a studio that he and his children used for their artistic work.

After starting a commercial apprenticeship in St. Gallen from 1924, Diego Giacometti, following his mother's advice, joined his older brother Alberto in February 1925 and moved to Paris. So far he had lived into the day and shown little responsibility for the way he lived. Alberto Giacometti had been a student of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière since 1922 and was supposed to take care of his brother. However, he refused to work in Bourdelle's workshop, preferred to work in a factory office in Saint-Denis and stayed in notorious bars and brothels .

Collaboration with Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti
Diego assis, 1964
Bronze
58.5 × 19.7 × 32.5 cm
Alberto Giacometti Foundation, Zurich
Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

Diego Giacometti did not find his life's work until 1929 when his brother met the Parisian interior and furniture designer Jean-Michel Frank through the mediation of Man Ray - the photographer in the surrealist group . Alberto Giacometti received orders from Frank for furnishings in plaster of paris or bronze, such as sconces, lamps, vases and fireplace sockets, which were intended for the apartments of the Parisian upper class. Diego Giacometti developed into an indispensable helper for his brother Alberto, as he was skilled with his craft and made the necessary preparatory work such as plaster casts and scaffolding for his brother's sculptures. He also helped with the actual sculpting work and sat as a model for him every day. They shared the same studio at 46 rue Hippolyte-Maindron in Paris and worked together on commissions for the Maeght and Noailles families . During the Second World War , Diego Giacometti took courses at the Scandinavian Art Academy and created his first animal sculptures. Animals had fascinated him since he was a child. From 1939 he created his own sculptural works and from 1950 focused on furniture and objects.

Work as an independent artist

Gravestone at the Church of San Giorgio , Borgonovo

After the death of his brother Alberto in 1966, Diego Giacometti concentrated entirely on his own work. It is believed that he created 4,000 to 5,000 objects and sculptures that he sold to friends and acquaintances while he was still alive. He designed the interior of the “Café Diego” in Saint-Paul-de-Vence for the Maeght Foundation . The last major commission made him widely known to the public: Diego Giacometti designed the interior of the Musée Picasso in Paris , which opened in September 1985 . The furniture, the banisters, door fittings and ceiling lamps come from him. Diego Giacometti was unable to witness the opening of the museum.

On the 50th anniversary of Alberto Giacometti's death, the Centro Giacometti is due to open in his hometown of Stampa in January 2016 , which, in addition to Alberto Giacometti, will also be dedicated to Diego and the other members of the artist family.

literature

  • Claude Delay: Giacometti, Alberto et Diego, l'histoire cachée , Fayard, Paris 2007
German Alberto and Diego Giacometti. The hidden story , Römerhof Verlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-905894-18-9

Web links

Commons : Diego Giacometti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James Lord: Alberto Giacometti. Man and his life's work . Knaur, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-426-02385-7 , pp. 78-85
  2. ↑ James Lord: Alberto Giacometti. Man and his life's work . Knaur, Munich 1991, pp. 111-123
  3. ↑ James Lord: Alberto Giacometti. Man and his life's work . Knaur, Munich 1991, p. 197
  4. ↑ About Diego Giacometti
  5. ↑ About Diego Giacometti
  6. ↑ See relevant web link
personal data
SURNAME Giacometti, Diego
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss artist and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Borgonovo, Stampa municipality
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1985
Place of death Paris