Seven Figures and a Head (The Forest)
7 Figures et 1 Tete (La Foret)

Artist Herbert Matter (American, born Switzerland. Born April 25, 1907, Engelberg, Swit, 1907 - 1984)

DateNegative 1960-1978; print 1978

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsSupport: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Mat: 19 3/4 × 23 3/4 in. (50.2 × 60.3 cm)

ClassificationsPhotograph

Credit LineGift in Honor of Norman S. Ives, Professor, Artist, Publisher and Friend of Herbert Matter, 2021

Object number2022.9.6

DescriptionHorizontal page with images of a sculpture of human figures arrayed across page; title refers to more figures than are visible in this image. View of sculptures appears to be truncated at bottom. Third figure from left is small or shorter than the others; sixth from left is a head without a body. Printed very high contrast to emphasize unevenly modeled surfaces of forms and reveal suggestion of faces.
eMuseum Notes

Emuseum Notes

By the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, sculptor Alberto Giacometti was exploring not only the human figure but also spatial relationships between figures. Here he clusters a number of full-length figures alongside a lone head on a pedestal. Herbert Matter’s photograph obscures one of the figures but captures the subtitle of the piece, “The Forest,” by using the camera to emphasize the tight proximity of the bodies. He prints the image with very contrast, giving a haunting effect to the composition and heightening the sculpted surfaces.

On View

Not on view

Terms