The City Square

1948/1949

Alberto Giacometti

Sculptor, Swiss, 1901 - 1966

Four thin people with exaggerated, elongated legs, torsos, and arms walk across a flat, smooth, dark slab while one stands with feet together and arms by their side in this free-standing bronze sculpture. They are sparsely spaced across the base, and they all head for roughly the center of the slab. The person standing with feet together is at the center of this photograph, which shows the sculpture from one long end. The people’s bodies are textured and knobby, as if built up from small pieces of clay. The artist’s name is incised into the front face of the base to our right, and reads: “4/6 A. Giacometti.”
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Enid A. Haupt

  • Dimensions

    overall: 24 x 64.7 x 43.4 cm (9 7/16 x 25 1/2 x 17 1/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1977.47.3

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York);[1] Mrs. Enid Annenberg Haupt, New York, by 1973;[2] gift 1977 to NGA.
[1] Memorandum of telephone call between J. Carter Brown and Mrs. Enid A. Haupt, 26 September 1977, in NGA curatorial files. [2] See memo concerning the Haupt collection dated 14 May 1973, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1978

  • Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 62, repro.

1990

  • Alberto Giacometti: dibujo, escultura, pintura, Centro de Arte Riena Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 1990-1991, no. 195.

Bibliography

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 100, repro.

Inscriptions

Edge of base, left back: 4/6 A. Giacometti; on base, right front corner: (underlined) Alex Rudier / Fondeur.Paris

Markings

FM: Alexis Rudier

Wikidata ID

Q63854300

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