Augusto Giacometti (16 August 1877 – 9 June 1947) was a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
from
Stampa
Stampa is a former municipality in the Maloja district of the Swiss canton, Graubünden. It is now part of the municipality of Bregaglia.
History
Stampa is first mentioned after 1354 as ''Stamppa'' and was named so in honor of the Stampa famil ...
,
Graubünden, cousin of
Giovanni Giacometti
Giovanni Ulrico Giacometti (7 March 1868 – 25 June 1933) was a Swiss painter. He was the father of artists Alberto and Diego Giacometti and architect Bruno Giacometti.
Biography
He was the fourth in a family of eight children. His father, ...
who was the father of
Alberto
Alberto is the Romance languages, Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic languages, Germanic ''Albert (given name), Albert''. It is used in Italian language, Italian, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language, ...
,
Diego
Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''.
Et ...
and
Bruno Giacometti
Bruno Giacometti (24 August 1907 — 21 March 2012) was a Swiss architect and the brother of the artists Alberto Giacometti, Alberto and Diego Giacometti. He was among the most notable post-World War II architects in Switzerland.
Biography
Giac ...
. He was a prominent as a painter in the
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
and
Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sy ...
movements, one of the first abstract painters, for his work in
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
, as a proponent of murals and a designer of popular posters.
He finished (among others)
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
windows in both of the most important churches of Zürich,
Grossmünster
The Grossmünster (; "great Minster (church), minster") is a Romanesque-style Swiss Reformed Church, Protestant church in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the four major churches in the city (the others being the Fraumünster, Predigerkirche Zür ...
and
Fraumünster
The Fraumünster (; lit. in en, Women's Minster, but often wrongly translated to urLady Minster) is a church in Zürich which was built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratic women which was founded in 853 by Louis the German for h ...
, as well as the inner decoration of the so-called
Waisenhaus Zürich
Waisenhaus (also Amthaus I) is the last remaining building of the Oetenbach nunnery, and houses today the police department of the city of Zürich in Switzerland.
Location
The ''Waisenhaus'' building is situated at ''Bahnhofquai 3'' towards Ba ...
.
From 1909 to 1913 Augusto Giacometti was a great inspiration for Czech born sculptor
Helen Zelezny-Scholz.
A two-day hiking trail connects most of the locations of the family in Val Bregaglia.
Life and work
Augusto was part of the successful Giacometti dynasty of painters. He grew up near the home and studio of his cousin Giovanni Giacometti, and devoted himself to painting from a young age. After completing his training as an art teacher at the
Zurich University of the Arts
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, german: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) has approximately 2,500 students, which makes it the largest arts university in Switzerland. The university was established in 2007, following the merger between Zurich' ...
between 1894 and 1897, he moved to Paris to study under
Eugène Grasset
Eugène Samuel Grasset (25 May 1845 – 23 October 1917) was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque. He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.
Biography
G ...
from 1897 to 1901.
Following periods of residence in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
and Zurich he settled down in Zurich in 1915.
In 1917 Giacometti came to know the
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
ists
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara (; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, comp ...
,
Marcel Janco
Marcel Janco (, ; common rendition of the Romanian language, Romanian name Marcel Hermann Iancu ; 24 May 1895 – 21 April 1984) was a Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect and art theorist. He was the co-inventor of Dadaism and a leading ...
,
Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber-Arp (; 19 January 1889 – 13 January 1943) was a Swiss artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect, and dancer.
Born in 1889 in Davos, and raised in Trogen, Switzerlan ...
, and
Hugo Ball
Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry.
...
.
He took part in the 8th Dada-Soirée in the Zurich merchants' hall and became a member of the group of artists "Das Neue Leben" (1918–1920). Known for his decorations in holy arts and his floral subjects, in 1919 Giacometti was initiated to the
Swiss Freemasonry at
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
.
With the realization of his design for the entrance hall (now known as
Giacometti-Halle) of the police station at
Waisenhaus Zürich
Waisenhaus (also Amthaus I) is the last remaining building of the Oetenbach nunnery, and houses today the police department of the city of Zürich in Switzerland.
Location
The ''Waisenhaus'' building is situated at ''Bahnhofquai 3'' towards Ba ...
between 1923 and 1925, Giacometti accomplished one of his most important works. The great recognition he received for this work paved the way for him to further important commissions.
In 1929 he created the colorful glass windows in the east wall of the Protestant church in
Frauenfeld
Frauenfeld (Alemannic: ''Frauefäld'') is the capital of the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
The official language of Frauenfeld is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Sw ...
, in 1933 the choral windows of
Grossmünster
The Grossmünster (; "great Minster (church), minster") is a Romanesque-style Swiss Reformed Church, Protestant church in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the four major churches in the city (the others being the Fraumünster, Predigerkirche Zür ...
in Zurich, in 1937 the choral windows of the village church of
Adelboden
, neighboring_municipalities= Diemtigen, Frutigen, Kandersteg, Lenk im Simmental, Leukerbad (VS), Sankt Stephan
, twintowns=
}
Adelboden is a mountain village and a municipality in Switzerland, located in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental admin ...
, and in 1945 a stained-glass window of
Fraumünster
The Fraumünster (; lit. in en, Women's Minster, but often wrongly translated to urLady Minster) is a church in Zürich which was built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratic women which was founded in 853 by Louis the German for h ...
.
He was one of the first painters of the 20th century to take steps into non-representational painting; his abstract paintings reflect his exhaustive study of the characteristics and rules of color. His epitaph reads ''Qui riposa il maestro dei colori'', "here lies the master of color."
Giacometti influenced the German painter
August Babberger
August Babberger (8 December 1885 – 3 September 1936) was a German painter. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
References
1885 births
1936 deaths
20th-century German pai ...
greatly in both his style and his choice of subjects.
File:Grossmünster - Innenansicht IMG 6431 ShiftN.jpg, Giacometti's window in Grossmünster (1933)
File:Glasfenster Augusto Giacometti.JPG, Window of Kirche San Giorgio in Borgonovo, where Giacometti is buried
File:Fraumünster - Innenansicht - Giacometti-Fenster 2010-08-27 17-02-52 ShiftN.jpg, Window of Fraumünster ''Das himmlische Paradies'' (1945)
File:Giacometti-Fenster in St Johann Davos 1.jpg, Church of St. Johann in Davos
, neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Bergün/Bravuogn, Klosters-Serneus, Langwies, S-chanf, Susch
, twintowns =
}
Davos (, ; or ; rm, ; archaic it, Tavate) is an Alpine resort town and a municipality in the Prättigau/Davos R ...
Exhibitions
* 2014/2015: ''Color and I. Augusto Giacometti'',
Museum of Fine Arts Bern
The Museum of Fine Arts Bern (German: ''Kunstmuseum Bern''), established in 1879 in Bern, is the museum of fine arts of the Switzerland#Federal City, de facto capital of Switzerland.
Its holdings run from the Middle Ages to the present. It houses ...
References
*''This article was initially translated from the German Wikipedia.''
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giacometti, Augusto
1877 births
1947 deaths
Alberto Giacometti
Stained glass artists and manufacturers
Zurich University of the Arts alumni
19th-century Swiss painters
19th-century male artists
Swiss male painters
20th-century Swiss painters
20th-century male artists