Paris, France —These are the painted sculptures. The secret sculptures. These are the sculptures that Alberto Giacometti painted, painted in often seemingly funky colours like deep orange. The Fondation Giacometti Institut located in the Montparnasse district of Paris is revealing these intriguing sculptures for the very first time in a show entitled Alberto Giacometti « Not to Talk of Painted Sculptures. »  Throughout his career the artist reiterated his desire to intimately link together sculpture and painting by painting some of his plaster and bronze sculptures, creating some 100 painted plasters, 55 of which belong to the Insitut Giacometti and some 60 painted bronzes. 

The exhibition brings together an exceptional body of painted plasters among them Stele (1958), Women of Venice (1949-1950), two versions of The Cage (1949-1950), one of which is a painted bronze, several paintings on canvas and a series of drawings, most of which have never been shown to the public before. Of note is a painted head of the famous French writer Simone de Beauvoir. 

He wanted to animate his sculptures, bring them to life and would even paint his sculptures that were being exhibited in various venues. The archaic art of Antiquity, the Italian Primitives and  non-Western art were his major influences. The range of colors he used to paint his sculptures was limited to red, brown and black although the red has a deep dreamy orange hue to it. « One shouldn’t talk of painted sculptures, only sculptures, » Giacometti explained to his gallerist Pierre Matisse in 1950, “The color is part of the sculptures, they are painted with oil, like the paintings. » But his painted sculptures, precious to him, were met with reticence by collectors. So he kept the painted plasters in his studio, until his death, subsequently keeping the colors fresh and almost bright. 

The Giacometti Institute is part of the Fondation Giacometti devoted to exhibitions and research in art history and pedagogy. Alberto Giacometti’s mythical studio, whose elements in their entirety, had been kept by his widow, Annette Giacometti, is on permanent display at the Institute. Conferences, workshops and guided tours are all on the agenda with guided visits in English on Saturdays at 11am. The current exhibition is running until November 3rd and is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue in a bilingual French/English edition. The Institute is open Tuesdays to Sundays, from 11am until 6pm. https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en 5 rue Victor-Schoelcher, 75014 Paris, France, +33 (0)1 44 54 52 44,  ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette