Diego Giacometti in the courtyard surrounded with works designed by Alberto Giacometti. Artwork: © Succession Alberto Giacometti / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY 2024. “For my livelihood, I accepted to make anonymous utilitarian objects for a decorator at that time, Jean-Michel Frank…I realized I was developing a vase exactly as I would a sculpture and that there was no difference between what I called sculpture and what was an object!”
—Alberto GiacomettiAlberto Giacometti designed the Figure floor lamp circa 1933 for French furniture and interior designer Jean-Michel Frank. In addition to Giacometti, Frank counted among his milieu such visionaries as Louis Aragon, Salvador Dalí, and René Crevel, with the Figure lamp appearing in interiors he designed for Elsa Schiaparelli among other notable commissions. Following Alberto’s death in 1966, Diego continued to cast the model for patrons such as Nelson Rockefeller. A handwritten note signed and dated by Diego Giacometti attests that the artist sold the present example, along with an Étoile table lamp and a Berceau low table, to Irvin Shapiro in 1969. Shapiro may have crossed paths with the artist through his work as a producer and distributor of foreign films. His company, Films Around the World, introduced American audiences to the work of French filmmakers such as Jean Renoir and Jean-Luc Godard, among others.
Shipping tag from Diego Giacometti to Irvin Shapiro. Image courtesy: the Estate of Diana Shapiro. Provenance
Diana and Irvin Shapiro, New York, acquired directly from Diego Giacometti, 1969
Literature
Waldemar George, "Jean Michel Frank," Art et Décoration, 1936, p. 98
Léopold Diego Sanchez, Jean-Michel Frank, Paris, 1980, pp. 107, 204
Michel Butor, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1985, p. 125
Daniel Marchesseau, Diego Giacometti, Paris, 1986, p. 11
Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean-Michel Frank: The Strange and Subtle Luxury of the Parisian Haute-Monde in the Art Deco Period, New York, 2012, pp. 68, 143, 198, 250Catalogue Essay
The present lot is registered by the Fondation Alberto and Annette Giacometti in the online Alberto Giacometti Database (AGD) under the number AGD 4637.
Property from the Estate of Diana F. Shapiro
25
"Figure" floor lamp
designed circa 1933, cast circa 1969
Patinated bronze, paper shade.
Height of cast: 61 1/8 in. (155.3 cm)
Underside impressed AG 0177 by the Comité Giacometti. Together with a certificate of authenticity from the Comité Giacometti.
Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $381,000
Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist
Associate Head of Sale
bgreen@phillips.com
+1 917 207 9090
Design
New York Auction 5 June 2024
