New Way of Seeing – Return to Figuration and Years of Crisis
1935–1945
Giacometti’s decision to make figurative heads triggers his expulsion from the Surrealist group in 1935. He works daily d’après modèle in his studio on heads of Diego and of Rita Gueyfier, a professional model. Isabel Delmer, to whom he is romantically attached, also poses for two sculptures. Giacometti establishes new friendships and becomes interested in Merleau-Ponty’s studies about the phenomenology of visual perception.
One evening Giacometti sees his girlfriend Isabel from afar on the Boulevard Saint-Michel, an experience that will lead to his attempts to capture the appearance of human presence at great distance.
In December 1940 Giacometti applies for a Swiss visa in order to visit his mother and nephew Silvio in Geneva. He leaves Paris shortly afterwards, while Diego stays to watch over the studio.
Giacometti spends the entire war period in Switzerland. In Geneva he meets Annette Arm (1923–1993), his future spouse and the woman who poses patiently for a great many paintings, sculptures and drawings. His sculptures steadily diminish in size, almost to the vanishing point. A unique, singular exception is his Woman with Chariot,a plaster executed at Maloja that measures one and a half metres in height.
