Giacometti in the Lympia Galerie Nice

I went to see this exhibition of some of Giacometti's last works in July while in Nice on holiday.  The Lympia Gallery is on the Port in Nice and was a former prison .... interesting!

It was built c.1750, most of the convicts at that time were used to build the Port. It ceased being a prison in 1887.  It was actually a beautiful space to have a gallery, full of light and cool inside.

I love Giacometti's sculptures - they are so lumpy and are full of energy and personality.

There were several of his wife Annette Arm.  I just love the texture of these sculptures, and also the material he uses, even though it's a hard metal (bronze), it somehow seems soft.

and then there were the familiar sculptures long, tall, skinny.   Parts of these look so thin they could break - especially around the neck and waist.  I always get the sense with these long tall sculptures that they are holding their breath!

and some of his seated/kneeling sculptures with tiny heads - are they meditating, or asleep? Again I love all the knobbly, lumpy textures to these sculptures.

Then there was this teeny tiny one which really was amazing! I think it is the smallest one he ever created. Just over an inch in height.

There were also some crayon/ink drawings too - very simple just a few lines to describe the sun, the beach, the heat.   I loved the simplicity of these drawings and thought ... oh yeah, I could do that!

Finally there was a short video of Giacometti at work, wish I could remember more of it - but it was amazing to see him at work, pinching a piece of the head with both hands, then down to the neck then up to the head again, then down to the neck and kept going like this as if keeping it all in balance, the sense of his deep communication with the piece of work was eerily tangible.

When I came back from holidays, just by pure co-incidence, there was a film about Giacometti just released called The Final Portrait, with Geoffrey Rush playing Giacometti - so of course I went along to see it - it was a funny and insightful film about Giacometti's last portrait drawing of his friend James Lord, where the sitting looked like it was going to go on forever, and almost did.  His wife Annette had to put up with his infidelity and his moods, but there was a lot of tenderness there too.

Just for info - Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was a Swiss/Italian sculptor, born in Borgonovo, near the Swiss/Italian border.  Interestingly he was commissioned by Beckett in the 1960's to design a tree sculpture for a 'Waiting for Godot' production.  I can see how they'd get along.