Today's World Art: Giacometti: Ensor: Giacometti: Ensor

Author: Xing Xiaozhou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: Authenticity
Since reality is indeterminate and elusive, Giacometti's sketches and paintings are filled with lines that continuously construct, alter, and overlap. His sculptures also possess indistinct contours. He once said, "Contours are never solid entities for me; they are more like transparent structures." In Giacometti's vision, all objects in the objective world are at a certain distance from him, existing within the space around them. He has always strived to express, or rather to determine, the space surrounding the objects.
"Why do I draw frames around portraits on my paintings? Because I can only determine the true spatial boundaries of the figures once they are completed. Moreover, I want to shrink the frame. I try to make my paintings virtual—contrary to Kandinsky, who wanted to make his paintings into objective objects. And because my figures need a certain dignity. The smaller the figure, the larger the space around it. Look at Chinese painting."
The figures Giacometti painted always have disproportionately small heads, appearing dark and indistinct, surrounded by vast empty spaces, making the isolation of the figures particularly pronounced. His sculpted figures are elongated, as if deeply compressed by the external space and the external world; their blurred contours and rough textures keep them perpetually at a certain distance from the viewer. These works exude a tragic tone, making one feel not only the unattainability of the objects but also the instability and uncertainty of existence, as well as the unbridgeable distance between people. It is no wonder that Jean-Paul Sartre, the father of existentialism, wrote two essays on Giacometti's art.