MoMA Installs Gallery Devoted To Giacometti's Pre-WWII Works

NEW YORK CITY

:The Museum of Modern Art has installed a gallery devoted to the pre-World War II works of Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901-1966), in its painting and sculpture galleries on the fifth floor.

Although Giacometti is perhaps best known for his filament-thin figures of the late 1940s on, this focused display highlights works made between 1926 and 1934, when the artist abandoned traditional representational styles to explore more abstract modes.

The installation includes newly acquired plaster versions of "Gazing Head," 1928-1929, and "Head-Skull," 1933-34, and an early bronze cast of "The Couple," 1926, recent additions to the museum's already significant holdings of Giacometti's avant-garde years.

These three acquisitions are shown with nine other works, including the artist's monumental "Spoon Woman," 1926-27, and his haunting Surrealist masterpiece, "The Palace at 4 am," 1932.

The installation is organized by Anne Umland, curator, department of painting and sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, and will be on view until July.

Also on view in the gallery are other key Surrealist works, including "Woman with Her Throat Cut," 1932, "Hands Holding the Void (Invisible Object)," 1934, and "Disagreeable Object," 1931. Accompanying the sculptures are engravings of "Cubist Head," 1933, and "Hands Holding a Void," 1934, as well as an ink drawing, "Study for The Palace at 4 am," 1932. Giacometti's post-World War II sculptures are on view in the museum's fourth floor painting and sculpture galleries.

"Gazing Head," 1928-1929, and "Head-Skull," 1933-34, are fractional and promised gifts from Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis and "The Couple," 1926, is a bequest of Sylvia Slifka.

The Museum of Modern Art is at 11 West 53rd Street. For information, 212-708-9400 or www.moma.org.