Thursday 4 February 2010

Giacometti - Safe as the Rock of Gibraltar

What happened here? How did a Giacometti sculpture looking like all the others, only bigger, fetch the largest price ever paid for an auctioned work of art? Is Giacometti even a great artist, in the sense that, say, Titian or Rembrandt are? He always seemed to me a one-trick pony who, once he'd found his style, just carried on imitating himself (as many artists do). The record-breaking sculpture is big, instantly recognisable and has scarcity value - even though it would be possible to mass-produce exact replicas that would fool anyone. It is also - and this, I suspect, is the clincher - perfect Corporate Art, the kind of thing that would look good, and impressive, and expensive, and instantly recognisable, in the vast foyer of some mighty finance corporation. Poor Giacometti - that it should come to this, the tortured products of his existential angst now (in the words of Godfrey Barker yesterday) 'safe as the Rock of Gibraltar'. He meant in investment terms, but...

15 comments:

  1. Amazing. Even bally amazing.

    I always had Giacometti down as distinctly second division. There or thereabouts with Chagall and others.

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  2. Have you seen Giacometti's portraits - his paintings? He has at least two tricks.

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  3. It could become the world's most expensive hat stand

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  4. That sculpture puts me in mind of those Antony Gormley things that were all over London a couple of years ago... meaning it obviously shouldn't be the most valuable sculpture in the world!

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  5. You want to see some nice statues? Go for one of my favourite childhood walks.
    http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/Dumfries/sculpture_walk.htm

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  6. Afraid that link didn't work Dearieme... Know what you mean about the Gormley resemblance Kate - sure sign of easily production-lined second-rateness. Amateur Reader, yes fair enough - a two-trick pony. And Recusant - I'd place Chagall a lot higher, his early work touched with real greatness, pity about the rest. Nice stained glass though...

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  7. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/Dumfries/sculpture_walk.htm

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  8. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/
    celynog/Dumfries/
    sculpture_walk.htm

    Perhaps you can reassemble it from this? It's worth it.

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  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  10. A bit third division, if you ask me. Had he just seen the film Avatar??

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  11. Yes Nige, maybe I was a bit harsh to Chagall. Would you be happy with another Italian? De Chirico

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  12. Thank you, Mr Lull.

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