Thursday, November 11, 2010

Museum Visit Project: MoMA: Alberto Giacometti







A 3 year old Uma discovered a Giacometti sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. She thought the thinny thin Giacometti was terrific. We asked her how she knew this thin figure was a woman, and she answered, "she has bobos."

Alberto Giacometti b. 10 October 1901- 11 January 1966, Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, printmaker) Giacometti was a well-known sculptor. His father was an artist. As a young man, Alberto worked at his father's studio, and learned about painting. In 1922, he moved to Paris, to study sculpture and painting. He experimented with some of the new styles of cubism and surrealism, but he preferred to draw exactly what he saw when he sat in front of a model.

From 1936 to 1940, his figures became more and more stretched out and long, and he began the unique artistic phase that made him famous.



Giacometti said that the final result represented the sensation he felt when he looked at a woman. He created very minimalist figures, but you could tell their gender and sometimes even their age.

In 1962 Alberto Giacometti received the Grand Prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale.



Here is a project inspired by the sculpture of Giacometti

You'll need some play doh or clay to use as a base, some pipecleaners to use as the armatures (structure) for figures, some tissue paper to wrap around the pipecleaners to give them some detail, some library paste to dip the tissue paper in, to make it stick to the pipecleaners. It will dry hard.

Twist the pipecleaners into figure shapes. They can walk, or run, or stand still. Make a pancake of clay and cut it into a rectangle. It will be the base for your figures. Press the ends of the pipecleaners into the clay to hold them upright. Dip strips of tissue paper into the paste and press them around the pipecleaners. Let them dry overnight. You can combine several figures on one base. You can paint your figure after it dries.

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