Lot Essay
This lot is registered under number AGD 3683 in the Alberto Giacometti Database.
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'Bilboquet' Table Lamp, circa 1937
Details
ALBERTO GIACOMETTI (1901-1966)
'Bilboquet' Table Lamp, circa 1937
terracotta, fabric shade
13 in. (33 cm) high, 5 7⁄8 in. (15 cm) diameter (excluding shade)
'Bilboquet' Table Lamp, circa 1937
terracotta, fabric shade
13 in. (33 cm) high, 5 7⁄8 in. (15 cm) diameter (excluding shade)
Provenance
Sonia Delaunay, by repute
Lars Vain Hole, Paris
Artcurial, Paris, 23 May 2017, lot 86
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Lars Vain Hole, Paris
Artcurial, Paris, 23 May 2017, lot 86
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Literature
L. D. Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank. Adolphe Chanaux, Paris, 1980, p. 200
L. D. Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 1997, p. 244
Jean-Michel Frank, Un décorateur dans le Paris des années 30, exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, 2009, p. 119
L. Verchère et. al., Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 2018, p. 201
L. D. Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 1997, p. 244
Jean-Michel Frank, Un décorateur dans le Paris des années 30, exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, 2009, p. 119
L. Verchère et. al., Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 2018, p. 201
Special notice
On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the sale of certain lots consigned for sale. This will usually be where it has guaranteed to the Seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the Seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee. This is such a lot.
Further details
The present table lamp is one of the four known examples of the ‘Bilboquet’ model, created circa 1937.
Alberto Giacometti enjoyed drawing his creations from everyday objects, transforming them into abstract yet utilitarian sculptures. Bilboquet, which can be translated as ‘cup-and-ball’, is an outdated French game of skill. Reduced to a combination of two simple shapes, it is reinterpreted here into a modern artefact. The rawness of the shapes and the refined profile confer an anonymity to the forms. The use of terracotta is in that matter anything but anecdotic. The artist worked with this material very rarely, thus its use should be considered as a statement, as an ambition of returning to a primary material. Used since the Palaeolithic era, terracotta is commonly associated with Greek antiquity and its earthenware vessels, which constituted part of Giacometti’s repertoire of forms. Its use is also consistent with Jean-Michel Frank’s aesthetic and attention to contrasts between luxurious and common materials, between delicacy and coarseness. The texture and natural patina of terracotta enable the present lamp to come alive and conform to the space it occupies.
The presence of this rare model in Sonia Delaunay’s apartment, 16 rue Saint Simon in Paris, does not come as a surprise. A Ukrainian-born artist, she founded along with her husband, Robert Delaunay, Orphism, an avant-garde movement sometimes called Orphic Cubism. Both artists’ creations and research focused on pure abstraction through an unprecedented approach to colour. They developed theories such as simultaneous contrast and optical intensity, which they applied to their work by designing geometrical and often circular shapes with a precise and reflexive combination of colours. The resonance between their work and the present lamp is hardly deniable, and confirms the timelessness of the ‘Bilboquet’ model.
Alberto Giacometti enjoyed drawing his creations from everyday objects, transforming them into abstract yet utilitarian sculptures. Bilboquet, which can be translated as ‘cup-and-ball’, is an outdated French game of skill. Reduced to a combination of two simple shapes, it is reinterpreted here into a modern artefact. The rawness of the shapes and the refined profile confer an anonymity to the forms. The use of terracotta is in that matter anything but anecdotic. The artist worked with this material very rarely, thus its use should be considered as a statement, as an ambition of returning to a primary material. Used since the Palaeolithic era, terracotta is commonly associated with Greek antiquity and its earthenware vessels, which constituted part of Giacometti’s repertoire of forms. Its use is also consistent with Jean-Michel Frank’s aesthetic and attention to contrasts between luxurious and common materials, between delicacy and coarseness. The texture and natural patina of terracotta enable the present lamp to come alive and conform to the space it occupies.
The presence of this rare model in Sonia Delaunay’s apartment, 16 rue Saint Simon in Paris, does not come as a surprise. A Ukrainian-born artist, she founded along with her husband, Robert Delaunay, Orphism, an avant-garde movement sometimes called Orphic Cubism. Both artists’ creations and research focused on pure abstraction through an unprecedented approach to colour. They developed theories such as simultaneous contrast and optical intensity, which they applied to their work by designing geometrical and often circular shapes with a precise and reflexive combination of colours. The resonance between their work and the present lamp is hardly deniable, and confirms the timelessness of the ‘Bilboquet’ model.
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