Augusto Giacometti (1877 – 1947) belongs to the most important Swiss artist personalities of the early 20th century. Born in Stampa in the Bergell he studied in Zürich and Paris and spent important years in Florence before he settled in Zürich from where he repeatedly made artistically stimulating excursions. His training in Paris with Eugène Grasset led to an intensive preoccupation with Art Nouveau. He translated sketches of plants and animals into ornamental works and constant replications of identical elements. They form the basis for his pastel drawings, in which he made light and colour the central means of expression. In his art he also translated his expert knowledge of transparent stained-glass windows, and the iridescent vibrancy of butterfly wings, with which he became a pioneer of non-representational painting.

From day one the drawings and works on paper belonged to his most important artistic means of expression. In them he developed his pictorial language between figuration and abstraction. He discovered free lineaments, and the fine pastels and luminous watercolours corresponded with his desire for the dematerialised figuration of light and colour.

For this reason the exhibition at the Art Museum Graubünden concentrates entirely on works on paper and thereby shows the fundamental basis of this work. The exhibition takes advantage of the rich holdings of the Art Museum Graubünden and is also augmented by prominent loans. A substantial part of the exhibition is the comprehensive collection of the architect Tilla Theus that comes to the Art Museum Graubünden in 2024 as an endowment.


Augusto Giacometti. Freiheit | Auftrag
The Aargauer Kunsthaus shows Augusto Giacometti within the controversy between free creation and commissioned art.