Alberto Giacometti

Jacques Grange, Paris
Galerie du Passage, Paris, 2005

Waldemar George, “Jean-Michel Frank”, Art et Décoration, Mars 1936, p. 91 
Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1986, p. 34 (for another example of the model)
François Baudot, J. M. Frank, New York, 1998, p. 47 (for a black patinated version), p. 65 (for a view of the model in Mrs. Claire Artaud's dining room, Paris, 1936)
Léopold Diego Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank/Adolphe Chanaux, Paris, 1997, pp. 136, 159 and 241 (for other examples of the model), p. 246 (for a black patinated version)
C. Boutonnet and R. Ortiz, Diego Giacometti, exh. cat., Paris, 2003, p. 33 (for another example of the model)
Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 2006, pp. 155, 198, 250 and 344 (for other examples of the model)
Pierre Passebon, Jacques Grange, Paris, 2008, p. 228 (for the present lot illustrated)

Condition consistent with age and material. The surfaces present with some light surface scratches and surface dirt, consistent with material, age and gentle use. When examined under blacklight, there are a few minor restorations to the base and to the two flat lower coupelles. One of the coupelles with restoration to one side extending the height of the coupelle. The opposite coupelle shows signs of restoration throughout and into the stem. The base with a hairline crack just below the knop underneath the arm structure. The mid portion has a minor surface loss of ¾ inch in length, which extends into minor hairline cracks along approximately ¾ inch, also visible with naked eyes. The two lateral cups have surface restorations throughout and the large central element has surface restoration at the base and around the rim, down to approximately half height. When looking into the stem, there is a metal conduit, but there is no corresponding electrical element in any of the cups. When viewed in person, the lamp has a vibrant presence and retains a richly detailed surface. A rare opportunity to acquire an extraordinary piece by Alberto Giacometti.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This lot  has been authenticated by the Giacometti Foundation and will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné of the Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation under the number 2992. 

“For me, the most beautiful statue is neither Greek nor Roman and certainly not from the Renaissance - it is Egyptian," wrote the young Alberto Giacometti to his parents from Rome in 1920. “The Egyptian sculptures have an excellence, an evenness of line and shape, a perfect technique that has never been mastered since.” Giacometti first encountered Egyptian antiquities in Italy, where he was fascinated by their capacity of showing the essential of life. In Paris as a disciple of Bourdelle, Giacometti studied Egyptian artefacts at the Louvre. Throughout his entire life, Giacometti’s work was deeply influenced by Egyptian art and philosophy.  When his father died in 1933 Giacometti began to focus on the idea of death and the beyond.

In 1929 Giacometti had been introduced by Man Ray to Jean-Michel Frank, whose decoration shop was located 140 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris. Among Frank’s clients were the great writers and collectors of the time: Paul Eluard, Charles et Marie-Laure de Noailles, Elsa Schiaparelli and Nelson Rockerfeller among others. Giacometti and Frank became close friends and worked together until the war. For his friend’s commissioned interiors, Giacometti designed vases, chandeliers and lights. Initially accepted out of necessity, these decorative works were never dissociated from his sculpture in the artist’s mind (“I realized that I was working on the vase in exactly the same way as a sculpture”).

Inspired by an alabaster oil lamp in the form of three lotus flowers discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922, his “Egyptian” Lamp is one of Giacometti most iconic creations of this time. Giacometti adopted Frank’s aesthetic of the anonymity and “modest luxury."  The object is not supposed to be functional, but to stand out as a visual statement in Frank’s minimalist interiors, reminiscent of a lost civilization. In 1936, the critic Waldemar George wrote that Giacometti’s objects look like “excavated objects. Giacometti has the antique under his skin”.

The fragility and precarious aspect of plaster, the intentional irregularity of the form and the purity of the white confer to the lamp a magical, silent and timeless power.