''Tête qui regarde'' , also known as ''Gazing Head'', is a 1928–29 sculpture by

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...

. It has been described as Giacometti's first truly original work.

Description

The

Cubist sculpture Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubism, Cubist painting, beginning in Paris around 1909 with its Proto-Cubism, proto-Cubist phase, and evolving through the early 1920s. Just as Cubist painting, Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézan ...

is a simplified, abstracted bust of a human head, inspired by

primitive art Tribal art is the visual arts and material culture of indigenous peoples. Also known as non-Western art or ethnographic art, or, controversially, primitive art, Dutton, Denis, Tribal Art'. In Michael Kelly (editor), ''Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. ...

and archaeological specimens: parallels have been drawn with the features of human figurines in

Cycladic art The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefo ...

. The head is flattened into an irregular quadrilateral plaque with slightly curving sides, which rests on an integral pedestal and base. The plate has two shallow elliptical depressions, a deeper vertical along the left edge and a shallower horizontal one inside the top edge, interpreted as the nose and an eye. Copies of the sculpture were made in terracotta, plaster, marble, and bronze. A small preliminary terracotta version, with the vertical depression to the right rather than the left, measures . Different plaster and bronze copies of the full-size sculpture have slightly different measurements, all around .

Origin

Giacometti had been working on portraits of his father Giovanni in 1927 before moving on to ''Tête qui regarde''. Early examples were made in 1928, and the sculpture was first exhibited beside works of

Massimo Campigli Massimo Campigli (; born Max Ihlenfeld, 4 July 189531 May 1971) was an Italian painter and journalist. Biography He was born in Berlin, but spent most of his childhood in Florence. His family moved to Milan in 1909, and here he worked on the '' ...

at the Gallery in Paris in 1929. A plaster copy was bought by

Charles de Noailles Charles de Noailles (26 September 1891 in Paris – 28 April 1981), Arthur Anne Marie Charles, Vicomte de Noailles, was a French nobleman and patron of the arts. Biography Charles was born in Paris on 26 September 1891, the son of François Jo ...

, bringing Giacometti into a circle of

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

s that included

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brussel ...

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

Jacques Prévert Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist moveme ...

Yves Tanguy Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (, ), was a French surrealist painter. Biography Tanguy, the son of a retired navy captain, was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Affa ...

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...

Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau wa ...

Michel Leiris Julien Michel Leiris (; 20 April 1901 in Paris – 30 September 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. Part of the Surrealist group in Paris, Leiris became a key member of the College of Sociology with G ...

, and

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

. Bronzes were cast in 1956.

Examples

Examples are held in several public collections, with a marble example held by the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam, and a plaster example at the Fondation Giacometti in Paris. The

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York has a plaster model and a cast from a series of six bronzes. A plaster example was the subject of an episode of the BBC television programme, ''

Fake or Fortune? ''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...

''. It had been damaged and repaired (more than once) and covered by white emulsion paint. In the original airing of the programme in 2018, the Giacometti Foundation took a preliminary view that the sculpture may have been an original work, but the extensive damage made it difficult to justify that conclusion. A revised and updated version of the programme was shown in 2019. The paint had been removed, revealing a Giacometti signature and date. The work was authenticated by the Foundation and sold at Christies for over half a million pounds.Christies Catalogue
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References

''Tête qui regarde'' (BA 176), marble, 1929
Stedelijk Museum
''Tête qui regarde'' (AGD 4054), plaster, 1929
Fondation Giacometti (private collection)
''Gazing head'' (AGD 460), plaster, 1929
Fondation Giacometti
''Gazing Head'' (AGD 861), bronze, cast 1956
Fondation Giacometti (private collection)
''Project for the Gazing Head'' (AGD 277)
terracotta, 1928–1929, Fondation Giacometti (private collection)
The surrealist experiment
Fondation Giacometti, Paris
''Tête qui regarde''
bronze, 1/6, 1929 French sculpture census (MOMA)
''Tête qui regarde''
plaster, 1929, French sculpture census (MOMA)
''Gazing Head 1928-29''
plaster, MOMA
''Gazing Head 1928-29''
bronze, MOMA

theartstory.org
"Fake or Fortune"
BBC, 3 September 2018
Alberto Giacometti: Myth, Magic, and the Man
Laurie Wilson, Alberto Giacometti p. 84, 95-97
Giacometti
Kunsthaus Zürich {{Alberto Giacometti 1928 sculptures Cubist sculptures Sculptures by Alberto Giacometti