Alberto Giacometti

Matter spent five years photographing Giacometti's studio in Paris. The sculptor considered the results "by far the most beautiful photographs" ever taken of his work, and he claimed that they taught him new things about his sculpture. Reproduced here, these remarkable pictures, themselves works of art, bring us closer to Giacometti's gaunt, groping figures and allow them to speak authentically. We experience their sheer, frontal directness and their relation to the vast spaces that surround them. We feel their hope, joy, anguish and solitude. This outstanding volume, a must for collectors, includes a perceptive essay by painter Mercedes Matter, the photographer's widow. Her theme is how Giacometti used the ancient materials of clay and paint to fashion an extreme, contemporary self-awareness. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.