Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Alberto Giacometti – Femme Cullière (1927)
- Specifications
- Description
- The Maker
- Brand:Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Denmark
- Country: Printed in Denmark
- SKU: LA-102791-FJ
- Material: Printed on paper.
- Dimensions:31" x 19.7"
After naturalistic portrait busts and painting, Giacometti in his early period worked in the form scheme of Cubism and from this originates, The Woman. You see how Giacometti, like many artists in Paris at this time—e.g. Picasso—is also influenced by African culture and the visual world.
Alberto Giacometti belongs to the artists who have influenced the art of the 20th century. Louisiana's collection of Giacometti figures is large, also internationally, and it is probably not least the interaction between Giacometti's figures and the museum's architecture that seems so special—and recognizable—to many of the museum's guests.
Giacometti's vision is characterized by a deep feeling for the basic human conditions—the isolation and loneliness of each being. His works open up when you make time for it, and at Louisiana, Giacometti's sculptures almost become a commentary on the museum visit itself—they are, after all, a kind of people in the rooms.
In both Giacometti's many busts and in the fully developed figures, it is the face that counts. The body is there, but it is not the main thing. It's the head. The gaze. As if the situation has been reversed and it is the sculptures that are looking at us.
From the beginning, the founder, Knud W. Jensen, intended for the museum to be a home for modern Danish art. But after only a few years he changed course, and instead of being a predominantly Danish collection, Louisiana became an international museum with many internationally renowned works.
Louisiana's close contact and collaboration with the international arts and cultural milieu has since been one of the museum's greatest strengths. And also one of the main reasons that it has been possible for Louisiana to present an exhibition program that has resonated so strongly with the public over the years. Louisiana has thus achieved a standing as one of the world's most respected exhibition venues, and in the future, it will be able to attract exhibitions and artists at a level that few other museums—either in Denmark or abroad—can match.
Knud W. Jensen put into action many of the period's visionary ideas about modern museum operation, including a desire for art to have a wide audience. It has always been the view at Louisiana that art is not just for an elite but includes experiences and visions for the many.
Why is it called Louisiana?
Many people wonder about the name of the museum. The short explanation is this—a nobleman and his three wives.
Knud W. Jensen chose to "take over" the name of the country house that he later converted to a museum. The property had been built and named in 1855 by Alexander Brun (1814-93), who was an officer and Master of the Royal Hunt and who married three women who were all named Louise.
Here at Louisiana, he was a pioneer in beekeeping and the cultivation of fruit trees.
From the beginning, it was Knud W. Jensen's vision to create a museum with soul, where the public could encounter artwork—not as something pretentious, but rather something that spoke directly to the viewer. And he emphasized the need for "supplementary content" that could help bring alive and enrich the environment: The more opportunities for experience that the program offers, the more Louisiana lives up to its idea—to be a 'musical meeting place' and a milieu that is engaged in contemporary life.
—Knud W. Jensen
