BREMEN.- “Alberto Giacometti. The Measure of the World” (11 October 2025 – 15 February 2026) at the Kunsthalle Bremen is the first major Alberto Giacometti exhibition on the life and work of the Swiss sculptor and painter to be held in Germany in more than ten years. It is also the first retrospective that focuses on Giacometti’s in-depth exploration of the place of humanity in the world and in nature. Over one hundred works will be on display, including sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints. The exhibition has been co-organised by the Kunsthalle Bremen and the Fondation Giacometti.

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) is one of the most important European artists of twentieth century. With his impressively elongated figures, the sculptor fundamentally reformulated sculpture after the Second World War. The exhibition “The Measure of the World” directs attention to two major themes in his work, including the ‘right measure’ which in Giacometti’s work was constantly in opposition to lifelike depictions. In addition, the exhibition examines his exploration of the place of humanity in the world.

Post-Impressionist Father, Native Alpine landscapes, and Ideas of Romanticism

Alberto Giacometti’s life as a young artist was characterised by diverse influences. His formative years were spent surrounded by artists: His father, the Post-Impressionist painter Giovanni Giacometti (1868-1933) and his painter friends such as Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), Cuno Amiet (1868-1961), and Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) were among the most successful artists in Switzerland. He was also influenced by the spectacular alpine landscape of his home. The picturesque, monumental surroundings of the Bregaglia and Engadine valleys in the Swiss canton of Grisons shaped his view of the world. In addition, in his youth, Giacometti was fascinated by the ideas of German Romanticism and adapted the notion of the Alps as the embodiment of the sublime. The overwhelming scale of nature in contrast to the minuteness of human beings, as well as a deep bond with nature became recurring elements in his later works.

From the Sublime of the Swiss Alps to Paris, the Metropolis of Art

Between 1914 and 1923, the young artist created oil paintings, drawings and in particular watercolours showing his native homeland in the Swiss Alps. The mood created by the light in these early landscapes is of major significance. The works show, for example, Lake Sils with the “Hotel in Maloja” (c. 1920), which still exists, or “Trees on a Lakeshore” (c. 1919) with the mountain peaks surrounding Lake Cavloc glowing in the sun.

The young artist, however, was not interested in imitating others. Rather, he was on a search to explore his own perception. Even after Giacometti moved to Paris in 1922 to study sculpture, his mission to transform his view of reality into art never changed.

The Human Figure as a Central Motif

Giacometti’s decision to focus on sculpture is related to the distinct attention he paid to his surroundings, the spaces that unfold in them and the material of the objects themselves. In 1935, he expressed his desire to discover how to capture the realistic essence of a human head. The decision to make the human figure his central motif was critical for his entire body of work to follow. He worked on heads of his brother, his wife Annette and Rita Gueyfier, a professional model. He experimented with various techniques, materials, and approaches.

Trees like Women, mountains like Men

Emerging from his urge to express his perception of the world in art, after the Second World War Alberto Giacometti developed standing figures of women which became a recurring motif in his body of work. The stiffly erect, immobile figures illustrate the impact of Giacometti’s interest in ancient Egyptian art. He likens the thin, vertical figures to his memories of the towering conifers in his Swiss homeland. Just like Giacometti perceived trees as women, he also saw mountains as men. As a result, the rough surfaces of Giacometti’s sculptures are not only the product of his indefatigable search for a process to create forms but are also reminiscent of structures in the mountains of his home and thus attest to his analogous thoughts on nature and humanity.

Human Isolation

Beginning in the 1940s, the subject of loneliness began to gain importance in Giacometti’s work. This is seen both in his standing figures, which are isolated from their surroundings, and in his paintings and drawings in which he placed lone individuals in expansive landscapes. In his group compositions “Three Men Walking” (1948) and “The Cage” (1950), the figures also appear isolated and alone in the world. Although the individuals gathered here share a common space, they exist next to each other without interacting, as Giacometti observed in daily life in Paris. Whereas he never saw himself as an ‘artist of solitudes,’ his figures are reminiscent of the idea of the human being as a lonely, questioning creature in search of meaning in the world.

The Sublime and Humanhind

The war years, from 1941–1945, which Giacometti spent by turns in a tiny room at the Hôtel de Rive in Geneva and in the narrow Val Bregaglia, reinforced his sense that he could not depict the human form without a connection to the surrounding space. During this period, his sculptures became progressively smaller until they measured just a few centimetres. To compensate for the increasing reduction in size that ultimately bordered on dematerialisation, he placed them on pedestals. Stacked and varied in size and scale, they became a central element of his work. Because of their tiny scale – and not in spite of it – these small figures retain a feeling of greatness. The artist, who in his youth absorbed the immensity of his surroundings in the Val Bregaglia, rediscovered the very sense of reality that eludes human cognition in his exploration of the relationship between different measurements of scale.

The Connection between Time and Space

The artist’s book “Paris sans fin” (English.: “Paris Forever”) (1969, published posthumously) consisting of 150 lithographs is a high point in the late work of the artist. The individual prints show everyday moments and various spatial situations which merge to form a very personal compendium of the city. In particular, the depictions of broad landscapes outside the city centre demonstrate the infinity of Giacometti’s vision in which he captured ‘eternal Paris’. Without a doubt, they express what the artist describes as the feeling of vast, circular time in another form.