The photo on this blog page is from an exhibition last year at the Minneapolis Institute of Art the guest curator was a young artist from California named Dave Muller he rehung 4 big contemporary galleries and painted the walls with designs and images it was up for nearly a year . This photo of the Giacometti sculpture in front of my 1975 Untitled painting was so right on that I thought it was worth bringing attention towards still as an example of how art can inform and amplify other art. I first saw Alberto Giacometti's sculpture and painting in 1963 at the Art Institute of Chicago when I was a first year student at the art college there. His work made a deep impression on me especially his focus on portraits. It was really the first time I saw a modern artist's work in depth it was a comprehensive retrospective exhibition of his work over many decades.
In Muller's installation he draws attention to the Giacometti sculpture in profile which is the same as the heads in the painting which are all in profile as well. This emphasis on two dimensional art or rather the flatness of profiles is very interesting to me as I wanted my painting to be very flat and to gain animation from vivid color and repetition. Together the works inform each other and draw attention to each other in a curious manner.I remember being quite taken by Giacometti's portraits especially his paintings. But the bust of Diego herein jumped out at me as a sculpture with an emphasis on it's two dimensional aspect. Giacometti's thin profiles so flat yet so tactile really beg the question about three dimensional art. In the midst of the color field surrounding the sculpture in profile a third work is created by the artist in his photograph. This third work the photo is an idea, an idea often is what gives art it's power it's life. This simple act of taking a photo after placing the sculpture in front of my painting is a brilliant creative act, simple elegant and beautiful. It says something about art works without using words something easy to understand and which helps viewers have an insight into how artist's see things..