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In April 1930, Breton and Dali discovered in an exhibition at the Galerie Pierre, in Paris, the famous «Suspended Ball» by Giacometti, whom they then invited to join the surrealist group. Their credo is to express through art the whole universe of the human psyche, even what was repressed until then, certain themes such as sexuality and violence, obsessions and cruelty, such as the Freudian doctrine or the battlefields of the First World War brought them to light. Giacometti’s object consists of a basic shape reminiscent of a slice of melon, above which a ball with a suggestive incision hangs from a cord.
To the person looking at it, the object suggests that a movement with a strong erotic connotation animates the ball above the underlying form. Inspired by this work by Giacometti, Dali published an important text in 1931 in which he called for the creation of other objects of this type, which he called “symbolic functioning objects”.
These surrealist collaborations of Alberto Giacometti and Salvador Dali are traced in the exhibition through sketches and archival documents of the two artists showing their visions and creative process.
Alberto Giacometti, Homme et femme, 1928/29 Bronze, 40 x 40 x 16,5 cm
Centre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle, Paris, Dation en 1984 Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Bertrand Prévost
© Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2023, ProLitteris, Zurich