The Giacometti Institute presents “Cruel Objects of Desire”
Alberto Giacometti and the Marquis de Sade: together? Most people likely don’t know about this surprising pairing, but in the 1930s, the Swiss sculptor became passionate about the philosopher’s sulphurous work (“Yesterday, I read Sade who fascinates me,” he wrote to his friend André Breton) and imagined a whole series of objects “with a symbolic function” that denote a striking eroticism. This winter, the Giacometti Institute is devoting an entire exhibition to the influence of Sadian writings on Giacometti’s work. “Giacometti / Sade, Cruel Objects of Desire” brings together a large part of the sculptor’s surrealist works, created between 1929 and 1934, as well as unpublished sketchbooks and photographs of missing works – such as Man Ray’s “Woman Holding the Disagreeable Object”. This week, Catherine Grenier invited the Institute’s loyal visitors to discover this exceptional exhibition in the presence of co-exhibitors Christian Alandete and Serena Bucalo-Mussely. Guests included President of the Centre Pompidou Serge Lasvignes, gallery owners Suzanne Tarasieve and Claudine Papillon, writer Annie Le Brun and artist Johan Creten…
