TWO OF the most influential artists of the 20th century are brought together in a new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, which presents a selection of important late works by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti. ‘Facing Infinity’ highlights the relationship between these two modern masters, who first met in 1931 and shared a life-long preoccupation with the matter of existence.
The paintings on display, alongside a single sculpture by Giacometti, are abstractions dating from the early 1950s up until the beginning of the 1970s, which nonetheless centre around the human body in an attempt, by both artists, to grapple with life as understood through the figure.
Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) Nu couché (Reclining Nude) 9 October 1968. Courtesy of Private Collection. © Succession Picasso / 2022, ProLitteris, Zurich. Photo: Jon Etter
The earliest work in the show by Giacometti was made when the artist was fifty; Picasso’s earliest paintings here were produced at the age of 87, just five years before his death.
Picasso had already become a role model for Giacometti, when he arrived in Paris in 1922, at the age of twenty. Almost ten years later, the Swiss artist would get to meet his idol, who had by this point established himself as a pioneer of cubist art.
Following their initial encounter, Picasso visited Giacometti’s debut solo show in Paris in 1932, at Pierre Colle Gallery, which led to regular exchanges over the next decade. At the beginning of the 1940s, the two artists were seeing each other almost daily.
Installation view, ‘Facing Infinity. Alberto Giacometti & Pablo Picasso’, curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart, until 27 August 2022 © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2022, ProLitteris, Zurich / © Succession Picasso / 2022, ProLitteris, Zurich. Photo: Jon Etter
The selection of works on view at Hauser & Wirth, curated by Dr. Dieter Buchart, allude to artists who are wrestling with aging and mortality, albeit with continued innovation. Picasso’s approach favoured a dazzling colour palette and profound sensuality.
It’s thrilling to see monumental compositions such as Reclining Nude and Personnages, both produced in 1968, which are unashamedly bold in their defiance of death. “As soon as you stop you have to start again,” the Spaniard claimed. “You can put aside a canvas and say you won’t touch it any more. But you can never write the words THE END.”
Installation view, ‘Facing Infinity. Alberto Giacometti & Pablo Picasso’, curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart, until 27 August 2022 © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2022, ProLitteris, Zurich / © Succession Picasso / 2022, ProLitteris, Zurich. Photo: Jon Etter
Giacometti’s outlook on mortality led to meditative compositions where the figure and background are barely distinguishable. The deeply translucent quality of the solemn paintings on view here, including Portrait de Yanaihara (1959) and Tete d’homme II. Diego (1964), contrasts with dense brushstrokes, which establish an overall image that is hazy and undefined.
The artist spoke of painting in order to “hang on, to advance as much as possible on all levels, in all directions, to defend myself against hunger, against the cold, against death.”
As ‘Facing Infinity’ suggests, the process of creating art for Giacometti and Picasso was endless, even in the face of their last years.
by Derby Jones
‘Facing Infinity. Alberto Giacometti & Pablo Picasso’ is on view until 27 August at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse 1.