City Square (La Place)

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 number2022.9.4

DescriptionHorizontal page showing image of sculpture of five standing human figures arrayed across a base. Figure at approximate center does not display any separation of limbs from trunk. Feet on figures are wedge-shaped and melded with base.
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 positions a number of them on a long pedestal that is standing in for an open-air plaza. Herbert Matter’s photograph of the piece evokes the sense of disconnection and hesitancy of Giacometti’s sculpture, created in the aftermath of World War II as Parisians were beginning to emerge from their shelters and the trama of years of conflict and occupation. The pale, almost unfocused quality of the print adds to the effect, as if the figures were groping toward one another in a fog or mist.

On View

Not on view

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