Alberto Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, Switzerland on October 10, 1901, and painted from a very early age. His father, who was a post-impressionist artist, nurtured this talent, which led to Giacometti attending Académie de la Grande-Chaumière from 1922 to 1925 to further develop his craft (via Britannica).
His works, which took influence from Oceanic and African art, grew more surrealist and avant-garde over time, with works like “Hands Holding the Void” and “Suspended Ball” displaying notable degrees of surrealism and the erotic. Giacometti’s own experiences with the death and despair of World War II bled into his works throughout his career, as noted by Guggenheim. This may have been a result of the fact that Giacometti and his brother fled Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, according to Britannica. Giacometti would go on to be revered by intellectuals like philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre later on in life, as said by Michael Scriven in his book “Jean-Paul Sartre: Politics and Culture in Postwar France.”
