Audio Tour Stop 16

No More Play, Alberto Giacometti

East Building Upper Level, Gallery E415
Part of East Building: Featured Selections (français)

Alberto Giacometti, l'un des grands sculpteurs surréalistes, incorporait souvent des thèmes ludiques dans ses premières œuvres, comme dans cette sculpture. La forme utilisée ici par l'artiste ressemble à un jeu de société, avec des pièces déplaçables, mais ce en quoi le jeu consiste n'est pas clair. L'espace ambigu et les règles inconnues du « jeu » représenté par On ne joue plus donnent le sentiment qu'il s'agit d'un objet que l'on pourrait voir en rêve.

No More Play (French)
Carved from a slab of white marble, the top surface of this sculpture is covered with shallow, cuplike and deep rectangular depressions of various sizes. We look slightly down onto the slab in this photograph. The surface is divided into three vertical sections, which are defined by incised lines. The cuplike depressions are in the sections to the left and right. Two tiny, carved, dark wooden objects, like game pieces, stand upright in a cup with one the left and one to the right. Each piece is flat with a symmetrical design and a point at the bottom that inserts into the cup. The left piece has a disk flanked by triangular protrusions with a clover shape at top. The second piece has four stacked, small circles, and a U-shaped form to suggest the outline of a person with raised arms. Three smaller but deep rectangular cavities are carved into the middle section, and each one has a lid. Two lids sit askew on the top surface of the board near their respective openings, and inside are additional wooden pieces. A blank, rectangular section outlined with lightly inscised lines in the lower right is carved with reversed script letters that read, “on ne joue plus.” The entire surface has beveled edges, so it sits on a stepped base.
Alberto Giacometti, No More Play, 1931-1932, marble, wood, and bronze, Gift of The Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Collection, Dallas, Texas, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.40.1

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