Giacometti and Yanaihara

A special friendship.

Alberto Giacometti (1901 – 1966) is widely considered the greatest sculptor of the 20th century. Originally attracted to Cubism and Surrealism, he only started to find his true voice in the years after World War II, when his gaunt, elongated statues became a symbol of both 'the Holocaust' and the 'Existential loneliness of Man.'

This exhibition looks at the relationship between Giacometti and his close friend Isaku Yanaihara, and how it may have influenced the artist towards a less visual and more cerebral approach.

Yanaihara was a Japanese Existentialist who often served as Giacometti's model. But the relationship went deeper than that. While Giacometti conducted affairs with other women, Yanaihara was delegated to keep the sculptor's wife happy in what was a very Parisian arrangement. The exhibition includes many excellent works, including busts, figurines, sketches, and even doodles doodled on a newspaper while the two men enjoyed a coffee on the boulevards.

August 8 to October 1, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe.

C.B.Liddell
Japanzine
August 2006