Diego Giacometti - Design Masters New York Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Collection of the artist; Christie’s, 20th-Century Art (Day Sale), New York, November 10, 1992, lot 692; Christie’s, Impressionist and Modern Art (Day Sale), New York, May 5, 2004

  • Literature

    Michel Buxtor, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1985, pp. 108, 111 and 11 for examples of similar “oiseau” figures; Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Paris,1986, pp. 94–95 for examples of similar “oiseau” figures; Francois Baudot, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1998, pp. 26–27 and 66–67 for examples of similar “oiseau” figures

  • Artist Biography

    Diego Giacometti

    Swiss • 1902 - 1985

    In 1935 Diego Giacometti took a holiday in Stampa, the Swiss town in which he grew up. The trip marked one of the first periods in which he was separated from his brother Alberto Giacometti, and perhaps in connection with having removed himself from the shadow of his brother's career, he began his first animal sculptures. It was shortly after this trip that the younger Giacometti also started making furniture, after patrons admired the stands he was crafting for his brother's sculptures. Diego modeled his maquettes in plaster (as opposed to clay or wax, which was the more common choice for sculptors) and cast his furniture in bronze, a departure from most metal furniture at the time, which was cast in iron. Illustrious clients included the Maeght and Noailles families as well as the decorator Jean-Michel Frank, who commissioned Alberto (assisted by Diego) to create plaster lighting and fireplace accessories.

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COLLECTION OF A GENTLEMAN

62

“Oiseau”

ca. 1970
Patinated bronze.
3 1/4 × 5 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (8.3 × 14.6 × 6.4 cm.)
Impressed with “DG.”

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for $40,000

Design Masters

13 December 2011
New York