Giacometti in Paris

by Michael Peppiatt

THE TIMES AND WATERSTONES BEST ART BOOK OF 2023
'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful . . . reads like a novel by Samuel Beckett' Paul Theroux
A portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors from one of our most eminent art historians

Today the work of Alberto Giacometti is world-famous and his sculptures sell for record-breaking prices. But from his early days as an unknown outsider to the end of a dramatic international career, Giacometti lived in the same hovel of a studio in Paris. It was Paris that made him, and he in turn immortalised the city through his art.

Arriving in Paris from the Swiss Alps in 1922, Giacometti was shaped not only by his relationships with remarkable artists and writers – from Picasso, Breton and Dalí to Sartre, Beauvoir and Beckett – but by the everyday life, pre-war and post-war, of Paris itself. His distinctive figures emerged from the city's unique the crumbling grey stone of its humbler streets and the café-terraces buzzing with radical ideas and racy gossip.

In Giacometti in Paris, Michael Peppiatt, who spent thirty years documenting the Parisian art world and mixing with many of the people Giacometti knew, brilliantly charts the course of the artist's life and work. From falling in and out with the Surrealists to years of artistic anguish, from devotion to his mother to intense friendships, tragic love affairs and a fraught marriage, this is an intimate portrait of an outstanding artist in exceptional times.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography

385 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 28, 2023

Reviews

[Naim · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...Alberto's most substantial response to Breton's dismissive claim that 'Everyone knows what a head is'. The most searching and resourceful sculptor of the twentieth century would show how misguided the leader of organised intellectual revolution could be."

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a frustrating book. I felt I learned very little about Giacometti that couldn't have been written in a short essay. I learned that he liked to visit prostitutes. I learned this roughly every five pages of the book. The other thing I learned was that Jean Paul Sartre mostly lived on sausages.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book late in the evenings because that’s what I do. I love Paris which is why I have been there several times. I am an artist and fascinated by the mostly French artists and those from elsewhere who were based there between 1880 through to more recent times. I also find the artists from the UK in that period are also fascinating. They are typically a ragged lot of individualists who like sex, art, isolation and busting up relationships. Their art is, however, brilliant and their life stories intriguing beyond the imagination that they each have been shown to possess in staggering quantities- and no I don’t like Modigliani’s drawings very much and only tolerate his sculptures. But the life he led, and the mode that he operated in or under intrigues me. This is the third or fourth artbiog I have read that was written by Michael Peppiatt. It is profoundly well written with a thoroughly balanced mix of history, biography, social interest and art stuff to keep me more than happy. Another of his great works.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book, it's not a dry academic book because it talks about intriguing people who changed the world of culture and about Paris when it was The Place if you were an artist or an intellectual.
I was entralled and read it like a novel. I saw documentaries about Giacometti, I saw some of his work life but it was the whole that kept me hooked.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[Daniel Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bringing art to life through words is such a challenge that anyone who has ever picked up an art book can relate to the tedium that can ensue. What a pleasure to read a book that so effortlessly brings to life a remarkable artist, making you feel as if you are a fly on Giacometti's graffiti laden walls.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written and insightful biography of Giacometti and a detailed exploration of his work. Accessibly written, meticulously researched and compulsively readable, with many excellent photographs to accompany the text. Excellent.

[Michael Pennington · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I enjoyed learning about Giacometti’s life this biography contained too much conjecture for me - made up conversations and recreations of scenes as if real. I also didn’t get enough out of it about Giacometti’s inspiration and techniques.

[Zak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant piece of Giacometti history and Peppiatt observation. Michael is an astounding writer.

[Dante]

a right bunch of rotters

[Upasana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I found the chapters of Giacometti’s involvement with the Paris surrealists harrowing, the rest of this biography was absolutely mesmerising. Peppiatt is an enviable writer, he imagines and researches and intuits and it is wonderfully, deeply satisfying.