Alberto Giacomettis 1934



Cube

stands apart for many as atypical of the Swiss artist, the only abstract sculptural work in a wide oeuvre that otherwise had as its objective the exploration of reality. With



The Cube and the Face

, renowned French art historian and philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman has conducted a careful analysis of



Cube

, consulting the artists sketches, etchings, texts, and other sculptural works in the years just before and after



Cube

was created.



Cube

, he finds, is indeed exceptionala work without clear stylistic kinship to the works that came before or after it. At the same time, Didi-Huberman shows,



Cube

marks the transition between the artists surrealist and realist phases and contains many elements of Giacomettis aesthetic consciousness, including his interest in dimensionality, the relation of the body to geometry, and the portraitor what Didi-Huberman terms abstract anthropomorphism. Drawing on Freud, Bataille, Leiris, and others whom Giacometti counted as influences, Didi-Huberman presents fans and collectors of Giacomettis art with a new approach to transitional work.