Monumental Head

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© Alberto Giacometti Estate/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
© Alberto Giacometti Estate/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/ADAGP, Paris
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
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Monumental Head

Switzerland, 1960
Sculpture
Bronze, cast number 5/6
38 x 12 x 13 in. (96.52 x 30.48 x 33.02 cm)
Partial, fractional and promised gift of Janice and Henri Lazarof (M.2005.70.34)
Modern Art
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Since gallery displays may change often, please contact us before you visit to make certain this item is on view.

Label

Monumental Head was conceived as part of a commission Giacometti received in 1956 to create a group of three figures for the plaza in front of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City....
Monumental Head was conceived as part of a commission Giacometti received in 1956 to create a group of three figures for the plaza in front of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City. The oversized head with elongated neck was meant to be installed directly on the outdoor plaza, so that viewers could engage with it more directly.

The artist was influenced by the colossal head of Emperor Constantine (c. AD 330), which he saw in Rome shortly before casting this work; Monumental Head shares a similar frontal composition and enormous eyes, emphasized with deep, gouged sockets and furrowed brows. Giacometti claimed that this representation of the eyes, at once abstract and accentuated, conveyed the gaze most effectively. Like other body fragment sculptures, such as The Leg (1958), Monumental Head reflects Giacometti’s sustained interest in partial figures.

Wall label, 2021.
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Bibliography

  • Barron, Stephanie. Envisioning Modernism: The Janice and Henri Lazarof Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich; New York: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2012.
  • Barron, Stephanie. Acknowledgments, or Every Label Tells a Story. Los Angeles: Art Catalogues: LACMA, 2017.