Giacometti: a case study

Giacometti: a case study on Lotman’s
aesthetic principles

 A work of art cannot be described as a simple stimulus. An aesthetic response requires a conversation between the sender of the artistic message and the receiver. We look, we ask, we think, we agree or disagree. In an attempt to find any precise aesthetic criteria that could be used as a model of evaluating an artwork, I would like to analyze the essay on the Typology of Texts and the Typology of Extra-textual relation, included
in Jurij Lotman’s book The Structure of the Artistic Text, written in 1972. After a short discussion of the text, I will attempt to apply the two criteria suggested by Lotman, in two different stylistic periods of sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, so as to come up with an interesting conclusion. For Lotman (1971), the artistic communication is an aesthetic communication positioned in a specific system of cultural codes. The artistic work cannot be perceived outside its cultural context. Although he focuses on the interrelationship between the artistic text (and consequently the writer) and the reader, his analysis can be applied in the area of any other artistic form too. He classifies the artistic phenomena into two categories. The first one, consists of phenomena whose structures are already given a priori to the audience. In these artistic systems, the “aesthetics of identity” applies: a set of
principles based on “model-clichés” that the audience can recognize and is familiar with. This set of principles can be found for instance in the “folkore of all the nations, in the medieval art, the commedia dell’arte, the Classicism” (Lotman, 1971, p.289). The second category, the “aesthetics of opposition”, includes all the systems, whose structures are completely unknown to the audience before the artistic communication begins. According to Lotman (1971, p. 292), this category is widely found in Realistic Art. A good example for further understanding of Lotman’s suggestion can be found in
Giacometti’s artistic work. Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was an Italian Swiss sculptor, painter and printmaker. In 1922 he arrived in Paris to study sculpture. There, he met Jean Cocteau, André Masson and was introduced into the Surrealist circle. In 1931, he joined André Breton’s Surrealist group and contributed to its events, publications and exhibitions. At this period he experimented with Surrealism and was recognized as one of the leading Surrealist sculptors. The Gazing Head (1928-29) is one of his works produced at this period. An enigmatic form that does not represent the realistic world but rather gives physical shape to an internal activity. For the public, Giacometti’s
Gazing Head is a Surrealistic artwork. As Breton (1969) explains, Surrealism can be
defined as a “Physic automatism in a pure state, by which one proposes to express . . . the actual functioning of the thought . . . in the absence of any control exercised by reason”. The automatic creation of an abstract and figurative form, a ‘head’ that is
‘gazing’, allows Giacometti to express himself unconsciously. But at the same time, this scheme, this technique and style are recognizable by the public. They express the Surrealistic artistic and cultural movement of the early 1920s as it was formed initially in Paris. Through the aesthetics of identity, as suggested by Lotman, the public places
Giacometti’s Gazing Head at the Surrealistic movement and ‘identifies’ his early artworks (from 1925 to 1935) as Surrealistic ones. However, what is interesting with Giacometti is his stylistic evolution through time. Later on in his life, he recognized his realistic roots and “returned to working from the model, embracing the visual world . . . as his theme”, a change that resulted in his clash with the Surrealistic movement in 1934 (Bonnefoy, 2001, p.192). Gradually through the practice of his art, the artist discovered his own style, a unique artistic style. An example of this style is the Man Pointing (1948) a single-figure sculpture, representing a man who gestures with his left arm and points with the right. An anonymous man, resembling to a skeleton, standing alone and pointing to the horizon. For the public, this single-figure, has nothing to do with Giacometti’s previous Surrealistic artworks. Giacometti creates a sculpture, not through an automatic unconscious act but after a reasonable mind process: his observation of the visual world and especially of the human body. This work is a new approach to sculpture. The artist desires to present his own vision on the depiction of human nature. And in order to do so, he opposes himself
to his previous stylistic technique and even to other artists’ representations of human nature (aesthetics of opposition). In this more mature period of his life, Giacometti creates works where the human figures are presented with heads, torsos, arms, feet elongated and stretched to almost the point of non-existence. It could be said that his deep, inner desire is to find the most essential truth in the human and to make use of outer appearances to communicate that special truth (Lord, 1983, p. 258).
What the aesthetic response to Giacometti’s artistic message could be, remains a
subjective issue and it is not this essay’s purpose to explore. What is observed though, through Giacometti’s example, is that both two aesthetic criteria, suggested by Lotman, could operate as useful tools in the process of evaluating artworks. And even more, they could be used not in a conflicting way but rather as a creative combination. This could allow us to better understand the artistic evolution of a specific artist as well as to witness his artistic communication as an interesting discussion between the past and the future.


Bibliography

Bonnefoy, Y. (2001), Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work. Paris: Flammarion. Breton, A. (1969), Manifestoes of Surrealism, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Giacometti, A. (1928-29), Gazing Head [Sculpture], New York: The Museum Of Modern Art. 
Giacometti, A. (1947), Man Pointing [Sculpture], New York: The Museum Of Modern Art. 
Giacometti, A. A youth spent in a studio, Biography of an oeuvre, Retrieved September 11, 2015, from http://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en/art/16/discover-the-artwork/. 
Lord, J. (1983), Giacometti: A Biography. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Lotman, J. (1971), The Typology of texts and the typology of extra-textual relations. In
The structure of the artistic text (pp. 286-296). [Ann Arbor, Michigan]: Dept. Of Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Michigan. ISBN 0-930042-15-8.