Alberto Giacometti
Femme debout [Standing Woman; Tall Figure]

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Artist Alberto Giacometti Swiss, 1901–1966

CultureSwiss

Titles

Femme debout [Standing Woman; Tall Figure]

Date1948–1949

PlaceSwitzerland

MediumBronze

Dimensions65 × 6 1/2 × 13 1/2 in. (165.1 × 16.5 × 34.3 cm)

Credit LineGift of Robert Sarnoff

Object number76.369

Current Location

The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building

Gallery 203

On view

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Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Object Type

SCULPTURE

DescriptionRetreating to Switzerland from Paris
during World War II, Alberto Giacometti
reevaluated his representation of the human
form, at first reducing and then elongating the
mass and volume of his sculptures. Following
his return to France in 1945, lone standing
figures became the primary subject of his
work. With Standing Woman, Giacometti
renders the female form as if seen from a
distance, or distorted by the veil of memory,
so that it becomes an expressive cipher. It
was given a second title, Tall Figure, when
the sculpture was first shown in New York.
Provenance[Staempfli Gallery, New York]; purchased by Robert Sarnoff, New York, 1976; given to MFAH, 1976.
Exhibition History"A Show from Staempfli Gallery," Meredith Long and Co., Houston, 1976.

"A Permanent Heritage: Major Works from the Collection," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 23, 1980–January 4, 1981.

"A Century of Modern Sculpture 1882-1982," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, January 14, 1983–January 31, 1984.

"Alberto Giacometti," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., September 15–November 13, 1988; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, December 15, 1988–February 5, 1989.

"Direction and Diversity: Twentieth Century Art in the Museum Collection,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 21–September 3, 1988.

"Alberto Giacometti," Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, October 27–December 10, 1994.

"Alberto Giacometti," The Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum, Japan, February 18–March 23, 1997; The Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan, April 11–May 25, 1997; The Ashikaga Museum of Art, Tochigi, Japan, June 7–July 13, 1997.

“Modernism and a Century of Change: Cubism and the Heroic Years of Abstraction,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 18, 1997–January 25, 1998.

"Modern and Contemporary Art: Spotlight on the Collection," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 7–August 27, 2000.

"Art at Midcentury: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 13–September 3, 2001.

"Space: Sculptors' Drawings, Drawings about Sculpture," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 27, 2001–January 21, 2002.

"The Women of Giacometti," PaceWildenstein, New York, October 28–December 3, 2005; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, January 14–April 9, 2006.

"Against the Current: 20th Century Representational Art in the Collection of the MFAH," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 7, 2006–September 2, 2007.

"Modern and Contemporary Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 8, 2007–March 2, 2008.

"Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time," Vancouver Art Gallery, June 15–September 29, 2019.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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