Alberto Giacometti
Headless Woman
1931-1935
Scroll
Alberto Giacometti
Headless Woman
1931-1935
Physical Qualities
Bronze, 57 1/2 × 11 × 14 1/4 in. (146.1 × 27.9 × 36.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Alan and Janet Wurtzburger Collection
Object Number
1966.55.9
Highly stylized and elongated, this sleek body is stripped of any individual characteristics, though it retains the basic elements of the female form. The frontal, static pose recalls the smooth, simplified statues of the Cycladic islands. However, the figure lists to her left and seems to escape the normal effects of gravity. Even though the left foot reaches forward as if caught in motion, the sculpture remains frozen in a serene moment.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1966; Alan and Janet Wurtzburger, Baltimore, by purchase, 1960; Peggy Guggenheim, Venice
Albert E. Elsen, Baltimore Museum of Art, "The Partial Figure in Modern Sculpture from Rodin to 1969", December 2, 1969-February 1, 1970, no.28, ill.p.61.
Katy Rothkopf, "Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris", circulated to; North Carolina Museum of Art, October 10, 2004-January 16, 2005, Naples Museum of Art February 5, 2005-May 1, 2005.
Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash; BMA, Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor", Dallas, January 21 - April 29, 2007; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 9-September 16, 2007; The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 28, 2007-February 3, 2008, cat. no. 154, p. 278, ill. p. 243.
Gagosian Gallery, "Objects of Affection: Isabel and the Image of the Others", November 3- December 2008.
Katy Rothkopf, "Matisse, Picasso and the School of Paris", circulated to; North Carolina Museum of Art, October 10, 2004-January 16, 2005, Naples Museum of Art February 5, 2005-May 1, 2005.
Dorothy Kosinski, Jay McKean Fisher, Steven Nash; BMA, Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, "Matisse: Painter as Sculptor", Dallas, January 21 - April 29, 2007; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 9-September 16, 2007; The Baltimore Museum of Art, October 28, 2007-February 3, 2008, cat. no. 154, p. 278, ill. p. 243.
Gagosian Gallery, "Objects of Affection: Isabel and the Image of the Others", November 3- December 2008.
J. Dupin, Alberto Giacometti, Paris, 1962, p. 217 (ill of plaster)
Albert E. Elsen, The Partial Figure in Modern Sculpture from Rodin to 1969, Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1969, p.110, no.28, p.61.
Kosinski, Dorothy, Jay McKean Fisher, and Steven Nash. Matisse: Painter as Sculptor. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art: Nasher Sculpture Center; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, pages 243, 278, cat. no. 154.
Murray Moss, "Dialogues Between Art and Design", New York: Phillips de Pury and Company, 2012,
Greeley, Robin Adele, Samantha Kavky, Oliver Shell, and Oliver Tostmann. "Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s." New York, NY: Rizzoli Electa in association with The Baltimore Museum of Art and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2018, ill.
Inscribed: on base: '3/Alberto Giacometti 1932/36'
