Peter Lindbergh, the fashion photographer celebrated for championing supermodels’ imperfections, has carried out a very novel and exciting collaboration – with one of the titans of 20th-century sculpture.
Alberto Giacometti’s starkly silhouetted sculptures and knife-headed busts, which have become so familiar to so many, are now on show at Gagosian’s Britannia Street outpost as you have never seen them before. In their portraits by Lindbergh, they are shown close-up, blown-up. Their rawness distilled by light, they are immediate and brought to life by a spark in the eye or a blur of focus. They appear scarred, brutalised, yet alive, with what Lindbergh calls their ‘perfect imperfections’.
The German photographer, who has had numerous Vogue covers and won awards for his cinematic filmmaking, was invited by the Kunsthalle, Zurich to make the series in 2016. The Kunsthalle owns the largest Giacometti collection in the world and wanted to challenge people with fresh ways of looking at a vitally important body of work, which the public may have become too familiar or too comfortable with.
Amazingly Lindbergh says he didn’t know a lot about Giacometti when he made his first visit to meet his unusual new models. ‘When I arrived and gathered the Giacometti busts and bronzes into a group I had the feeling that they’re not objects, or sculptures, they’re alive, talking to each other like a group of school children. I kept asking myself, how is that possible?’
Installation view of ‘Substance and Shadow’ at Gagosian
He continues: ‘So much of that one man is in there. You feel that his life is in there. Intuitively I began to imagine what Giacometti was doing and thinking. What I wanted to capture was the relation between him and the object.’
Pointing to one of the most powerful images in the series, of Buste de Diego (1964-5), I suggest to Lindbergh that Giacometti wasn’t interested in portraiture so much as capturing the experience of life emerging from and vanishing into space.
‘But that’s exactly like portraiture!’ he exclaims. ‘Sometimes I show a photograph to somebody and they go, “That’s him! You’ve captured him!” I say that’s impossible. How can anyone do that? He is so complex this person, and tomorrow he will be a completely different person.
Lindbergh muses, ‘A photograph has nothing to do with the person you are photographing. It has to do with what comes out of the person when you’re with them, and what you can give them.’
Alberto Giacometti, Buste de Diego (vers 1964-1965), Zurich, 2016, by Peter Lindbergh, 2016. © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti.
Installation view of ‘Substance and Shadow’ at ‘Substance and Shadow’ at Gagosian’s Brittania Street outpost
Alberto Giacometti, Femme debout (Poseuse I) (1954), Zurich, 2016, by Peter Lindbergh, 2016. © The artist and Succession Alberto Giacometti.
INFORMATION
‘Substance and Shadow’ is on view until 22 July. For more information, visit the Gagosian website
ADDRESS
Gagosian
6-24 Britannia Street
London WC1X 9JD
-
Alexander McQueen appoints Irish designer Seán McGirr as creative directorAlexander McQueen announces new creative director Seán McGirr – who previously worked at JW Anderson – just days after Sarah Burton’s exit from the British house
-
Fender Tone Master Pro hopes to capture the ears of guitarists everywhere
The new Fender Tone Master Pro is the company’s first foray into digital multi-effects systems, a sophisticated unit that blends retro style with high-end electronics
-
Major Barbie exhibition announced at Design Museum, London
The Design Museum has announced a major Barbie exhibition (5 July 2024 – 23 February 2025) to coincide with the doll’s 65th anniversary
-
Whoosh! ‘Email is Dead,’ say the Design Museum and Intuit Mailchimp
Take an immersive tour through the history of email at the Design Museum in London
-
‘Darker, more sinister themes’: Paula Rego’s decade of self-discovery is the subject of a new London exhibition
Paula Rego’s ‘Letting Loose’, at Victoria Miro in London, considers the artist’s work from the 1980s
-
Tate Modern announces The Infinities Commission for rising contemporary artists
Tate Modern’s new Infinities Commission will support experimental work from around the world
-
Turner Prize 2023 exhibition unwrapped: inside Towner Eastbourne
The Turner Prize 2023 exhibition has opened inside the colourful Towner Eastbourne; delve into the work of the four nominees
-
Peruse the ICA print sale, marking the institute’s 75th anniversary
London’s ICA print sale, with Counter Editions, includes limited-edition prints from Chris Ofili, Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, and more, available individually or as a box set
-
New glass sculpture creates a verdant wonderland at Apple’s Cupertino HQ
‘Mirage’ at Apple Park is the work of Zeller & Moye and artist Katie Paterson, a shimmering array of glass columns that snakes through the grounds of the company’s monumental HQ
-
Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain: humour, desire, domesticity
‘Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas’ at Tate Britain spans the four decades the artist’s career
-
Heads up for London Film Festival 2023’s immersive art programme
From VR fungi to AR walks, London Film Festival 2023 announces LFF Expanded, a compelling programme of immersive art and extended realities
