Walking Man 1

Alberto Giacometti was born in 1901 in Switzerland. Growing up, his painter father influenced him to pursue a career in art. At first, He started out making portraits of his family members but  when he went to study art at the School of Fine Arts in  Geneva he discovered cubism, Greek statuary,  and African art. These types of art helped influence Giacometti’s artwork and led to him moving to  Paris to join a Surrealist group.  During his time in Paris, Giacometti became interested in sculpting and would use his close friends as models to sculpt his artwork.  He was obsessed with creating sculptures that matched his ideas.  The sculptures would be thinner than a nail and smaller than a box of cigarettes. However, he eventually changed his art style after World War II. After the war, he wanted to make sculptures that were gigantic but small enough to fit a small space.  In the 1950s, Giacometti created the walking man, a collection of large but skinny figures made out of a metal frame and clay.  The particular style of the sculptures distinguished him  from other sculptors because he would highlight the loneliness and fragility of man in his sculptings.  

In Walking Man 1, Giacometti is showing the theme of human aspiration and human existence. With the Walking Man 1, the artist wanted to show how fragile man came be but that it is possible to  have a better life.  In the sculpture, Giacometti uses the 108 cm high statue to  symbolize a man with fragile bones. The sculpture is leaning forward to show that the man is going to walk because of the  posture of the statute and  the position of the legs and arms.  The attempt to walk shows human aspiration because the walking effect shows that the man in the sculpture is ready to leave the conditions that it was stuck in. The need  for the man to leave although he  looks fragile  shows the determination in human aspiration because even though the man in the statute is frail, the lean forward shows that it is capable of continuing on.  The theme of human existence and the struggles associated with it is shown in the statue’s oversized feet being stuck in the clay and glued to the base. The inability  to move  shows human existence because even though the man in the statute attempts to move forward there are difficulties that will prevent  humans from advancement.

I find Giacometti’s sculpture to be beautiful because the sculpture is different from other sculptures since it does not follow the idealistic views of a statue’s body. In Giacometti’s sculptures, the body tends to be frail and it is hard to identify any form of musculature or skin. While it is facile to identify limbs, the closest way to identify the body in the sculptures is to view it  as skeletal bone structure.  The association with skeletal bone structure reminds me of death or illness and causes me to feel uncomfortable when looking at the statue. This discomfort makes me  appreciate the sculpture because even though the statute may look fragile, the lean of the man in the sculpture shows the determination to move forward. Moreover, I believe the structure of the sculpture is relatable because even with fear anything can be accomplished. In addition, I see parallels of sculpture to World War II because of how it relates to the emptiness of World War II and how many people felt emptiness and loneliness  during the war. Moreover, I believe that the parallels between World War II and the sculpture are still felt in modern times because many people still feel  loneliness and emptiness.