• Art Moderne  auction at Christies

    Sale 4038

    Art Moderne

    Paris

    |

    22 - 23 October 2015

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    • Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
    Lot 106

    Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)

    Eiji Usami à la terrasse du Café du Dôme

    Price realised

    EUR 85,500

    Estimate

    EUR 70,000 - EUR 100,000

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    Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)
    Eiji Usami à la terrasse du Café du Dôme
    daté et numéroté '27.9.60 4' (en bas à droite)
    crayon lithographique sur papier report
    41.9 x 32.1 cm.
    Exécuté le 27 septembre 1960

    dated and numbered '27.9.60 4' (lower right)
    lithographic crayon on transfer paper
    16 ½ x 12 5/8 in.
    Executed on the 27th of September 1960
    1

    Provenance

    Collection Tériade, Paris.
    Collection particulière, Paris (par descendance).
    Acquis auprès de celle-ci par le propriétaire actuel.

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    Lot Essay

    Base de données de la Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, no. AGD 2898.

    Bien que reconnu comme l’un des plus grands sculpteurs de son siècle, c’est dans le dessin qu’Alberto Giacometti retranscrit sa force et sa spontanéité. Durant toute sa vie - depuis son enfance, durant les années surréalistes et jusqu’à la période d’après-guerre - il accorde une place prépondérante à cet exercice graphique auquel le Musée national d’art moderne de Paris rend hommage lors de l’exposition Alberto Giacometti, le dessin à l’oeuvre, en 2001. A travers l’effervescence de ses traits au crayon, l’artiste parvient à créer une intimité troublante avec le spectateur, en lui offrant son travail à l’état pur. Ainsi, ses portraits d’homme, emblématiques, prennent-ils vie grâce à un jeu entre les vides et les formes créées par l’énergique superposition des lignes.
    En mars 1960, c’est grâce à une lettre d’introduction du philosophe japonais Isaku Yanaihara, modèle récurrent d’Alberto Giacometti, qu’Eiji Usami fait la rencontre de l’artiste et de sa femme, Annette. Poète et théoricien de l’art, Usami se passionne pour la modernité artistique française et passe son séjour parisien, dans les cafés, en compagnie du couple. Le présent Portrait d’Usami à la terrasse du Café du Dôme est à rapprocher de la lithographie traitant du même thème, publiée en 1969 dans l’ouvrage mythique de l’artiste, Paris sans fin.

    Although Alberto Giacometti is recognized as one of the greatest sculptors of the 20th Century, it is in drawing that his spontaneity takes on its full meaning. Throughout his life – from childhood, during the surrealist years and until the post-war period – he accorded an important place to the practice of drawing, as attested by the Musée national d’art moderne de Paris whose exhibition Alberto Giacometti, le dessin à l’oeuvre in 2001 paid detailed tribute. Through his turbulent pencil lines the artist succeeds in creating a troubling intimacy with the spectator. His emblematic portraits come alive thanks to the offsetting of empty spaces and shapes created by the energetic superimposition of lines.
    Eiji Usami met Alberto Giacometti and his wife, Annette, in March 1960 through an introduction letter from the Japonese philosopher, Isaky Yanaihara who was a recurrent model of the artist. As a poet and art theoretician, Usami was interested and passionate about French artistic modernity and he spent his Parisian stay in the company of the Giacometti couple. The present Portrait d’Usami à la terrasse du café du Dôme is similar to the lithograph of the same title, published in 1969 as part of the celebrated book by the artist, Paris sans fin.

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