ART-PRESENTATION: Alberto Giacometti & Yves Klein

At the Gagosian in Grosvenor Hill, London, works by Alberto Giacometti and Yves Klein are shown together for the first time. In an ambitious and immersive installation, Giacometti’s nervously modelled figures and heads are confronted by Klein’s intense and expansive colors. Each artist is generously represented by works on loan from the Fondation Alberto Giacometti, the Yves Klein Archives, the Beyeler Foundation, and distinguished private collections.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive

The title of the exhibition, “In Search of the Absolute”, originates from an essay on Giacometti by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. At first glance, Alberto Giacometti and Yves Klein, artists born a generation apart, could not be more different: Giacometti was a master of material form, and of the representation of the figure, Klein was an influential theorist whose art married the conceptual with the cosmic. In the ‘50s and early ‘60s, the two artists lived and worked within a mile of each other, in Paris, but there are few clues in their work to suggest that they shared the same artistic milieu. What they did have in common was an acute consciousness of the catastrophic effects of the World War II and its aftermath on European culture. Each dealt with it in his own way: in his sculptures, Giacometti struggled to evince a vital human presence from nothing; Klein shunned the personal, autobiographical mark, attempting to dematerialise painting to the point of pure saturated color.  25 sculptures by Giacometti, including: “Le Nez” (1947), “Femme de Venise I” (1956) and “L’homme qui marche I” (1960), are juxtaposed with works from Klein’s series: “Monochromes”, “Anthropometries”, “Fire Paintings” and a Sponge Sculpture. It is in the series “Anthropometries” that Klein comes closest to Giacometti in his desire to record the human trace, albeit without any overt evidence of his own hand. In this juxtaposition, the exhibition seeks to evoke the differences as well as the affinities between these two artists of the modern period, bringing new light to their aspirations and achievements.

Info: Curator: Joachim Pissarro, Gagosian Gallery, 20 Grosvenor Hill, London, Duration: 27/4-11/6/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.gagosian.com