Exhibition from May 18th to June 30th 2017
For the first time, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Gruber, are confronted in an exhibition that showcases their artistic and friendly relationship. Their mutual influence had never been explored.
This event has the support of the Giacometti Foundation.
Between 1935 and 1948, the proximity of their workshops in the legendary Montparnasse (rue Hippolyte Maindron and Villa of Alésia), enabled them to meet frequently and share artistic exchanges.
Having both abandoned their surrealist vision in 1935, they returned to figurative art with emphasis on the human figure.
“Drawing assiduously for Giacometti and Gruber strengthened their friendship. It is a field of continuous experimentation, a permanent research laboratory.
For each artist, nude studies were conducted without complacency and sublimation in order to understand construction, structures… Of striking simplicity, the tormented stroke produces a nervous script… Deep exploration of reality through drawing is common to both… “
Lydia Harambourg, taken from the preface to the exhibition catalogue.
Their works echo with the same expressive force in drawing as in painting with equal colour density. The two friends have the same vision of the world. As early as 1950, Gruber as well as Giacometti, both had their own personal exhibition in Paris at the Museum of Modern Art or in London at the Tate Gallery.
