After a design by Diego Giacometti (1902-1985)

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THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR In 1965, at the age of twenty, this collector first met Alberto Giacometti at the Café La Closerie des Lilas. "We discussed many things, including chinese culture, a topic of mutual interest". The collector had recently visited China and acquired a strangely shaped sculpture which he decided to present to Giacometti. It was then that Alberto introduced him to his brother Diego. "However, due to our mutual shyness, I did not meet Diego again until three years later". It was Maguerite Maeght who took the collector to Diego's home on the Rue du Moulin Vert in Paris. "Thus I entered into his life and, above all, he into mine". Having already acted as an independent curator and a cultural advisor, working with such great artists as Picasso and Chagall, the collector was no stranger to the artistic community. Yet of Diego, he says, "How intimidated I was to meet this 'monstres sacrés!' It took me three years after I was reacquainted with Diego to find the courage to acquire a work from him or to ask him to create works for my home." The two men's friendship grew as they spent Saturday afternoons taking walks, seeing Shakespearean plays and socialising with their mutual friends, the Massons and Vieira da Silva. "Our friendship was unique. I have never encountered the same simplicity and affection with others as I did with Diego". Prior to 1966, many friends and collectors enjoyed the fruits of Diego Giacometti's labours by commissioning works and interior designs. But after the death of his brother, Alberto, these opportunities became less frequent, as the artist found it increasingly difficult to realise more elaborate and personalised creations. It was therefore an extraordinary gesture of freindship that, in 1982, Diego Giacometti designed household fittings and furniture, as sculptural objects and architectural features for his friend's new Parisian residence as well as for his country home. Diego Giacometti originally used the various animals represented in this collection as ornaments for his furniture. They are full of wit and charm and stand independent of the furniture as sculpture in their own right. This collector had one of the largest collections of these animal sculptures. THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTOR

After a design by Diego Giacometti (1902-1985)

La rencontre

Details

After a design by Diego Giacometti (1902-1985)
La rencontre
signed with the monogram 'DG' (on the reverse)
hand-woven wool pile rug
68½ x 92½in. (173 x 235cm.)
Designed in 1984; this example woven in 1985 in an edition of 100 plus artist's proofs.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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