$70M Giacometti Bust to lead Sotheby's Modern Auction this May

Among the rare and powerful post-war bronzes by Giacometti to ever come to auction, this intensely personal hand-painted sculpture serves as a poignant tribute to his brother and lifelong muse, Diego Giacometti. A embodiment of Existentialist ideals during the heated years of the Cold War, this sculpture is one of his most formally radical, visually striking, and emotionally charged works.

Grande tête mince comes to auction with exceptional provenance, having been shown at the 1956 Venice Biennale, and again at the Fondation Maeght from 1964 until 1980. It was acquired by the present owner over 40 years ago from Galerie Maeght – Giacometti’s primary dealer. 

Simon Shaw, Senior Advisor, Impressionist and Modern Art, Sotheby’s: “Grande tête mince is Giacometti at his most bold and unflinching, a true masterpiece of sculpture embodying the existential themes of isolation and human presence. The work encapsulates the partnership between the artist and his brother Diego, one which would define the artist’s post-war era. Set to lead the May season, this rare work is the only known cast of its kind and one of only a handful of exceptional and powerful works by Giacometti to come to auction in recent memory.”

By 1950, Giacometti believed he had fully explored the creative potential of the elongated, weightless figures he had first begun to develop in the late 1940s. In search of a renewed sense of spatial realism, in an effort to maintain the emotional intensity of his previous works, he turned to painting – as he had in 1935 when he moved away from his surrealist and abstract style – and began to work again from life models.

The subject of this sculpture is Giacometti’s younger brother, Diego, the fellow sculptor and designer, who served as his lifelong muse, first posing for him in 1914, and his studio assistant from 1929 onward. The two shared a sculpture studio in Paris for the majority of their lives, and Diego’s enduring presence inspired a myriad of interpretations of heads and busts.

Giacometti aimed to capture the feeling of Diego existing in space, and obsessively focusing on a single figure allowed him to craft a universal image of man. Though he distorted Diego’s features, key traits remain unmistakable: the intense gaze, upturned nose, full lips, and high forehead with a full crest of hair. Giacometti’s process was intensely tactile, often carving into the material with a modeling knife so that, from the front, the head appears unnaturally narrow, but in profile, it is bold and jagged.

Throughout his career, Giacometti, whose father was a painter, sought a deep connection between sculpture and painting, using both mediums on occasion to enhance his sculptures. He saw color as an integral part of creative expression, driven by a desire to create figures that felt truly alive, and was known to decide to apply paint to a work, even as works were being installed in galleries and museums.

This rare painted cast will be on view at Sotheby’s New York galleries starting May 2, ahead of its auction at the Modern Evening Sale on May 13. With an estimated value in excess of $70M, it stands as one of the most powerful and profound works of Giacometti’s career, recognized as one of the definitive masterpieces of twentieth-century sculpture.