![Femme debout [Standing Woman; Tall Figure]](/internal/media/dispatcher/286692/preview)
- Femme debout [Standing Woman; Tall Figure]
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Alberto Giacometti probed the material essence of sculpture, seeking to redefine the limits of perception and illusion. In the late 1930s, Giacometti began to reevaluate his representation of the human form, at first reducing and then expanding the mass and volume of his figures.
Following World War II, lone standing figures with furrowed surfaces became the primary subject of his work. By 1950 Giacometti resolved his work into three major themes he believed could express the totality of life: the standing woman, the walking man, and the portrait bust. In Tall Figure, Giacometti reduces the form of a woman to a thin line, and the viewer sees her as if reflected across a great distance. At the same time, the densely molded features suggest an almost clinically intimate examination. Yet the piece also attests to the human condition of the era. The fragile attenuation of the human form speaks to the anxiety of life in postwar Europe.
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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![Grande femme debout I [Large Standing Woman I]](/internal/media/dispatcher/288966/thumbnail)
