Milan, at the Rovati Foundation an exhibition on Diego Giacometti, Alberto's brother


Alberto Giacometti's name is very famous, but not everyone knows his brother Diego: he too was a sculptor, and the Rovati Foundation in Milan is dedicating an exhibition to him from March 15 to June 18, 2023.

From March 15 to June 18, 2023 Fondazione Luigi Rovati is hosting the exhibition Diego, the Other Giacometti, curated by Casimiro Di Crescenzo and organized in collaboration with PLVR Zurich: the exhibition investigates the work of Diego Giacometti (Borgonovo di Stampa, 1902 - Paris, 1985), a Swiss sculptor and younger brother of the better-known Alberto Giacometti.More than sixty objects including sculptures, furnishings, small animals and maquettes represent the declinations of Diego Giacometti’s sculptural work and are included in the permanent installation of the Art Museum, activating a dialogue with Etruscan art, which was among his sources of inspiration. Thanks to support from Diego Giacometti’s heirs, the Foundation’s is the first Italian exhibition dedicated to the Swiss artist and welcomes loans from the Fondation Giacometti in Paris, theAlberto Giacometti Stiftung in Zurich and the Musée Picasso in Paris, as well as those from Diego Giacometti’s heirs and other private collections.

Diego had a strong bond with Alberto, reciprocated with equal intensity: the two brothers lived in a symbiotic relationship for the forty years they spent together in Paris. This relationship emerges in the formal assonances between the works of the two, although Diego maintains a personal approach in his artistic practice characterized by a love for the animal kingdom, which leads him to original and entirely personal outcomes. Diego’s is in fact a refined production, characterized by an immediately recognizable style that blends inspiration from ancient art (Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman) with references to the world of nature, sometimes playful or fairy-tale-like. His works enhance the essentiality of form, perfect proportions, and the subtle interplay of balance between different parts.



Among the works in the exhibition: Lionne of 1931, Diego’s first work; Lion’s Head of 1934, a mighty stone work that for years was visible at the entrance to the family home in Maloja, on loan from the Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung; the Table basse “Carcasse” modèle à la chauve-souris of 1975; and the Console “La promenade des amis” of 1976, among the most representative works of Diego’s artistic work, on loan from private collections; the Torchère, maquette demi-grandeur from 1983-84, a model Diego used when he was engaged in decorating the halls of the Musée Picasso in Paris; the 1983 Lanterne à quatre lumières, created for the American philanthropist and collector Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon and set up at the entrance to the main floor of the Palazzo on Corso Venezia.

Finally, on public display for the first time are the Mirror of 1942, created from a Baroque fantasy, the Hand of 1942-1944, and theApplique aux panthères, once located in the artist’s home on rue du Moulin-Vert in Paris.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the Luigi Rovati Foundation.

Image: Diego Giacometti, Lion Head (1934; stone; Zurich, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung)

Milan, at the Rovati Foundation an exhibition on Diego Giacometti, Alberto's brother
Milan, at the Rovati Foundation an exhibition on Diego Giacometti, Alberto's brother


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