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Description of  Alberto Giacometti: The Art of Relation

Alberto Giacomettis attenuated figures of the human form are among the most significant artistic images of the twentieth century. Jean-Paul Sartre and Andr Breton are just two of the great thinkers whose thought has been nurtured by the graceful, harrowing work of Giacometti, which continues to resonate with artists, writers and audiences. Timothy Mathews explores fragility, trauma, space and relationality in Giacomettis art and writing and the capacity to relate that emerges. In doing so, he draws upon the novels of W.G. Sebald, Samuel Beckett and Cees Nooteboom and the theories of Maurice Blanchot and Bertolt Brecht and recasts Giacomettis Le Chariot as Walter Benjamins angel of history. This book invites readers on a voyage of discovery through Giacomettis deep concerns with memory, attachment and humanity. Both a critical study of Giacomettis work and an immersion in its affective power, it asks what encounters with Giacomettis pieces can tell us about our own time and our own ways of looking and about the humility of relating to art. Read more