Giacometti’s sculptures come out of the shadows through the lens of Peter Lindbergh

sculptures artwork
Alberto Giacometti, Group Of Nine, Zurich, 2016, by Peter Lindbergh, 2016.
(Image credit: © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti. Courtesy of Gagosian)

Peter Lindbergh, the fashion photographer celebrated for championing supermodels’ imperfections, has carried out a very novel and exciting collaboration – with one of the titans of 20th-century sculpture.

Alberto Giacometti’s starkly silhouetted sculptures and knife-headed busts, which have become so familiar to so many, are now on show at Gagosian’s Britannia Street outpost as you have never seen them before. In their portraits by Lindbergh, they are shown close-up, blown-up. Their rawness distilled by light, they are immediate and brought to life by a spark in the eye or a blur of focus. They appear scarred, brutalised, yet alive, with what Lindbergh calls their ‘perfect imperfections’.
 
The German photographer, who has had numerous Vogue covers and won awards for his cinematic filmmaking, was invited by the Kunsthalle, Zurich to make the series in 2016. The Kunsthalle owns the largest Giacometti collection in the world and wanted to challenge people with fresh ways of looking at a vitally important body of work, which the public may have become too familiar or too comfortable with.
 
Amazingly Lindbergh says he didn’t know a lot about Giacometti when he made his first visit to meet his unusual new models. ‘When I arrived and gathered the Giacometti busts and bronzes into a group I had the feeling that they’re not objects, or sculptures, they’re alive, talking to each other like a group of school children. I kept asking myself, how is that possible?’

sculpture and artwork


(Image credit: press)

Installation view of Substance and Shadow’ at Gagosian

He continues: ‘So much of that one man is in there. You feel that his life is in there. Intuitively I began to imagine what Giacometti was doing and thinking. What I wanted to capture was the relation between him and the object.’
 
Pointing to one of the most powerful images in the series, of Buste de Diego (1964-5), I suggest to Lindbergh that Giacometti wasn’t interested in portraiture so much as capturing the experience of life emerging from and vanishing into space.
 
‘But that’s exactly like portraiture!’ he exclaims. ‘Sometimes I show a photograph to somebody and they go, “That’s him! You’ve captured him!” I say that’s impossible. How can anyone do that? He is so complex this person, and tomorrow he will be a completely different person.

Lindbergh muses, ‘A photograph has nothing to do with the person you are photographing. It has to do with what comes out of the person when you’re with them, and what you can give them.’

sculpture in the shape of a face

Alberto Giacometti, Buste de Diego (vers 1964-1965), Zurich, 2016, by Peter Lindbergh, 2016. © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti.

(Image credit: © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti. Courtesy of Gagosian)

sculpture and artwork

Installation view of ‘Substance and Shadow’ at ‘Substance and Shadow’ at Gagosian’s Brittania Street outpost

(Image credit: press)

sculpture artwork

Alberto Giacometti, Femme debout (Poseuse I) (1954), Zurich, 2016, by Peter Lindbergh, 2016. © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti.

(Image credit: © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti. Courtesy of Gagosian)

INFORMATION

‘Substance and Shadow’ is on view until 22 July. For more information, visit the Gagosian website

ADDRESS

Gagosian
6-24 Britannia Street
London WC1X 9JD

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Read more
grayson perry
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlight
sculptures
Helmut Lang showcases his provocative sculptures in a modernist Los Angeles home
artwork
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time
Azzedine Alaïa - Thierry Mugler 2025 exhibition in Paris
‘Azzedine Alaïa - Thierry Mugler’: new Paris exhibition puts two fashion greats in conversation
London art exhibitions ANDRÉ 3000, by James Dimmock, December 2000, ©James Dimmock
London art exhibitions to see in April
woman collage
'I want to get into these images and perfume them': Linder's retrospective opens at the Hayward Gallery
Latest in Exhibitions & Shows
frida kahlo
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next year
art works
Don’t miss these five artists at Art Basel Hong Kong
ai weiwei
Ai Weiwei's major retrospective in Seattle is a timely and provocative exploration of human rights
grayson perry
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlight
desert
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella Valley
cowboy
Cowboys and Queens: Jane Hilton's celebration of culture on the fringes
Latest in Feature
the toteme store in China by herzog & de meuron
Bold, geometric minimalism rules at Toteme’s new store by Herzog & de Meuron in China
lo scoglio byron bay review
Wallpaper* checks in at Lo Scoglio: an Australian vacation rental with regenerative principles
zaha hadid architects future projects
The upcoming Zaha Hadid Architects projects set to transform the horizon
black and white image of kitchen
‘La Cocina’: the kitchen is a chaotic melting pot of contemporary culture in Alonso Ruizpalacios’ new film
lean lui guide to hong kong
A local’s guide to Hong Kong, by photographer Lean Lui
people at watch show
What can we expect from Watches and Wonders 2025?