{"id":20382,"date":"2026-01-19T17:07:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/review-faces-and-landscapes-of-home-at-hauser-wirth-st-moritz\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T17:07:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:07:51","slug":"review-faces-and-landscapes-of-home-at-hauser-wirth-st-moritz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/review-faces-and-landscapes-of-home-at-hauser-wirth-st-moritz\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u201cFaces and Landscapes of Home\u201d at Hauser & Wirth, St. Moritz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>
Alberto Giacometti, Silsersee (Lake Sils)<\/em>, 1921-1922, Oil on canvas, 50 x 61 cm. \/ 19 5\/8 x 24 in. \u00a9 Succession Alberto Giacometti \/ 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich, B\u00fcndner Kunstmuseum Chur<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHomecoming shows\u201d might be a phrase more associated with Bruce Springsteen<\/a> or Adele<\/a>, but this time it\u2019s the works of 20th-century sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti<\/a> returning to an area the artist rejected and inspired in equal measure. We use the expression only quite loosely, however. Giacometti was born in 1901 in Stampa, situated in the Bregaglia Valley, 20 miles from ultra-chic St. Moritz<\/a>, itself around 35 kilometers from the Italian border. Seeing as \u201cthe village\u201d (as it is referred to around these parts) has a Hauser & Wirth<\/a>, it\u2019s only apposite that it should be the venue for this most evocative of exhibitions.<\/p>\n

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Indeed, the gallery has made it a tradition to highlight the artists and works that have had a connection with St. Moritz and the local area, the Engadin Valley<\/a>. In the past, it has shown Gerhard Richter<\/a>\u2019s overpainted vistas of the nearby Alps and displayed artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat<\/a> that he produced when he stayed at the hunting lodge of his agent Bruno Bischofberger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This exhibition, curated by Giacometti authority Tobia Bezzola<\/a>, is a neat encapsulation of the artist\u2019s work that foregrounds the dichotomies that punctuated his life. On view is a display that manifests the contrasts and conflicts between the professional and the personal; the style and themes; form and execution; public and private; inspiration and influence; Paris and Stampa; and, most of all for Giacometti, the choice between sculptor and painter.<\/p>\n

\"A\"A<\/a>
Alberto Giacometti, Selbstbildnis<\/em>, 1920. Oil on canvas, 41 x 30 cm. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen\/Basel, Sammlung Beyeler. Photo: Robert Bayer \u00a9 Succession Alberto Giacometti \/ 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amid such sturm und drang<\/i>, though, are early paintings such as Silsersee<\/i> (1921-1922) and Monte del Forno<\/i> (1923), which instill a calming serenity with their deft post-Impressionist execution and pastoral vistas. These embody the fascination and awe-inspiring power of the natural beauty abundant in the area and have had a lasting impact on creatives over the years, from the historical reflections of Nietzsche (who vacationed in nearby Sils) to the contemporary output of Not Vital. These early pieces still exude a distinctly sculptural quality, and his Self-Portrait<\/i> (1920) is a subtle signpost to his later fascination\u2014not only with capturing form, but also with the inspiration that Stampa and his home provided throughout his career.<\/p>\n

With Giacometti\u2019s move to Paris in 1922 (turning his back on his family and his father\u2019s influence as a former landscape painter), he embraced the panoply of philosophies and movements that were coalescing in the French capital. Here, he was not only speaking another language but also attempting to find his own artistic one, as Bezzola explains. \u201cThere, he learned to speak the language of the international avant-garde, and that of Surrealism fluently and eloquently. During his annual returns to his rural homeland, however, he reverted to the Italian dialect of the valley in which he had grown up, and his artistic forms of expression adjusted accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

One look at T\u00eate de Diego<\/i> (1947) on show bears this out: the sketch lines of his brother\u2019s head fuse the painterly with the out-of-proportion oval shape of his later sculptural works. It\u2019s what Bezzola terms \u201can increasing formal and methodological dissolution of this divide\u201d between painter and sculptor. While Giacometti made the sketch in Paris, Diego was clearly still in the artist\u2019s mind from an extended visit back to Stampa to see his family only the year before, which may have renewed his artistic fire. Just a year later, in 1948, came Giacometti\u2019s celebrated solo exhibition in New York featuring his trademark elongated figures.<\/p>\n

\"A\"A<\/a>
Alberto Giacometti, T\u00eate au long cou<\/em>, 1949. Bronze with dark brown patina, 26.1 cm. \u00a9 Succession Alberto Giacometti \/ 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich, Photo: Jon Etter<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This period marked a particularly fruitful time for Giacometti, which this exhibition captures in paintings such as Bust<\/i> (1948) and Seated Man<\/i> (1950), as well as Head with Long Neck<\/i> (c. 1949, cast 1965). It\u2019s the juxtaposition of these works that, rather than showing division, actually emphasizes the unity in Giacometti\u2019s oeuvre. His figures\u2014whether sketched, painted, or sculpted\u2014continue to intrigue and command attention with their subjects and execution.<\/p>\n

Another unique facet of \u201cFaces and Landscapes of Home\u201d that serves to augment the works on show is the lesser-seen photographs of Giacometti by the photographer and trusted friend Ernst Scheidegger<\/a>. Other photographers captured the artist in his Paris studios, but it was Scheidegger who was able to transgress into the more personal, behind-the-scenes aspects of his home life in Stampa, particularly in the 1950s when Giacometti returned to the valley to escape the Parisian bustle. \u201cIn his letters, he often complains that in Stampa he did not relax or recover at all, but was instead completely absorbed in his work the entire time,\u201d Bezzola says of this period.<\/p>\n

Scheidegger\u2019s delightfully tender shot, Alberto with his mother Annetta<\/i> (1959), is trumped only by Alberto Giacometti at his Worktable in Stampa<\/i> (1965). Here, in the last year of his life, he can be seen sitting at his desk strewn with apples, some half-made miniatures beside him, as he remains immersed in fashioning a sculpture, while a cigarette burns louchely in an ashtray beside him. How rock\u2019n\u2019roll is that?<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Alberto Giacometti: Faces and Landscapes of Home<\/b><\/a>\u201d is on view at Hauser & Wirth, St Moritz, through March 28, 2026.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"A\"A<\/a>
Alberto Giacometti, Monte del Forno<\/em>, 1923. Oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm. Private Collection, Switzerland. \u00a9 Succession Alberto Giacometti \/ 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich, Photo: Jon Etter<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More exhibition reviews<\/b><\/h3>\n

\t\t\t\t\"In<\/p><\/div>\n