Gedächtnisausstellung Giovanni Giacometti

One year after his death, the Kunsthaus installed a memorial exhibition in honor of Giovanni Udalrico Giacometti (b. 1868 in Stampa, d. 1933 in Glion), the father of Alberto, Bruno, Diego and Ottilia. The starting point was his early work “Herdsman with Sheep” (1898), and the show was concluded with a Engadin landscape from the year of the artists’ death (“Lago che gela”, 1933). The exhibition was comprehensive and showed about 130 paintings from the years 1901 to 1920, and fifty other works, which the artist had made from1921 to his death. Further came some early works from before 1900 and drawings, water paintings and wood carvings. The last earlier exhibitions had been some time ago: in 1920 a large retrospective had taken place in the Basler Kunsthalle, after groups of works had already been shown in the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1912. The Director of the Kunsthaus, Wilhelm Wartmann, saw Giovanni Giacometti, together with Cuno Amiet, in succession to the fifteen years older Ferdinand Hodler. Between 1904 and 1914 he was situated, according to Wartmann, “in the front row […] of those young Swiss painters of whom one was beginning to believe they could achieve European recognition.” Giacometti was distinguished, said Wartmann by his fresh colors, his natural manner, and his talent for improvisation and composition. The artist himself put it like this: “The struggle with light is the driving force behind my work.” The exhibition was received very positively. The NZZ praised the painter as one who had exercised much influence on younger artists. After 1900, Giacometti had found his individual style: “What seemed bold at the time we see today a beautiful, clear, and bright.” According to the Zürcher Volkszeitung the coloring might seem off-putting at first, and yet: “In its authenticity and power it is convincing and impacts the viewer directly with force.” And: The “composition is usually of perfect harmony,” while “the harmonious colors recur in surprising variety,” with which the National-Zeitung agreed in almost lyrical descriptions. With the exhibition came a catalog with an introductory text by Wilhelm Wartmann and a list of works.