ALBERTO GIACOMETTI What Interests Me about the Head: Interview with Ernst Scheidegger, Peter Munger, and Jacques Dupin (1966) ‘What interests me most about the head—well, actually the whole head inter sme, hut I think now I might succeed in constructing dhe eye as exactly as possible, and tien ve got that, when I've got the base of the nose... But ro take the eye: I mean the unatire of the eyeball—fiom that everything else should develop. Why? Probably be- cause, when I look at someone, I look atthe eyes rather than atthe mouth of the point of the nose. That's the way it is: when you look at a face you always look atthe eyes. Even if ‘look ata cat, it always looks you in the eye. And even when you look ata blind man, spook where his eyes are, as if you could eel the eyes behind the lids. The eye is some~ thing special insofie as it's almost as though made of a different material from the rest of the fice. You could say thatall the forms of the face are more or less clea, ae even very uncle; the point of the nose can hardly be defined at all in terms of its structure. Now the strange thing is, when you represent the eye precisely, you risk destroying exactly what _yoae afer, namely the gaze. That's how it seems to me. There are few artworks in which the gm exis... In none of my sculptures since the war have I represented the eye pre- ‘ch indicate the position of the eye. And I very offen use a vertical line in place of the ppl I's the curve of the eyeball one secs, And it gives the impression of the gaze. But ila’s where the problems come in. ... When I get the curve of the eyeball right, chen P've ‘pv the socket; when I get the socket, T've got the nostrils, the point of the nose, the ‘mouth... and all of this together might just produce the gaze, without one’s having to “concentrate on the eye itself, * Aero Gicometi excerpt fom a inmerview for he fm Alberto Glam (Zurich, 96) by Erna Sch Agger ter Monger and Jacques Dupin, cited in Resnbald Hol, Ala Cisne (New Yorks Hay N. ‘Sows 1970324 FIGURATION 189Alberto Giacometti, Sel-Portrsit, 1962, ballpoint pen on paper napkin. 190 FIGURATIONJEAN FAUTRIER Prefice to the Fautrier Exhibition Catalog, (1943) by André Malranse ‘The att of the earliest Hostages remains still ational: human faces reduced to heir most unadorned expression by the use of simplified yer dramatic contours, and by wy leden colors, forever reminiscent of death. Later, however, Fautrier leaves out the tec allusions to blood, the complicity of the corpse. Colors fi th torture eplace the previous ones; atthe same time a line which attemprs to express aly without representing i, takes the place of the ravaged profiles. Now there are only thatscem to belong to Fautrier’s accommodation (apparent in al artists) with another part himsel(? Does it not seem at times that the artist, his ultimate potential realized, may ‘tipped and fillen to the other side? Like Uccello whose genius was not recognized is friend Donatello, when he saw the painter's celebrated canvas. Yet it may be pre~ lyin these works, which are the least persuasive for some people where the artist's ul inate intensity is worked out in a moment of temporary solitude. ‘Modem azt was donbdlesdy born on the day when the idea of art and that of beauty nese separated. Peshaps with Goya, .. A less important but unique revolution occurred sour Twentieth Century: just as we are no longer able to see a work of art independent of is historical ramifications—no matter whether we want to admit it or not—we like~ je have begun to view some paintings in terms of their maker’s artistic history. Ie was not Jyyaccdent that Picaso substituted dates for titles in his paintings. “Writers begin to think. heir'Collected Works’ while writing,” said Goethe. Painters likewise are beginning to this “Collected Works.” Thus if each single Hestag is a valid painting, the meaning Hosts a thet fullest strength is inseparable from the space in which you ste them gath- se where they are atthe same time the damned ofa coherent helland moment of trapped. OFhow many painters of Fautrier’s generation can it be sai at chs moment that they 1 one's debt? Here isan artist whose sharp turns over twenty years have always led finbuck to tragic thernes—and always less by representation chan by expresion. A painter thas many painters as adversaries and many poets a6 acimirers, yet whose at, daring and is of exemplary solitude. leis che fis attempe to strip contemporary suffering down covers most moving ideograms to the point sere this anguish ha sce in the world of exernal ideas. x Drowin, 1945} reprinted in Jom ind Malas, excorpt rom poe, fw Four (Par Gale raat by Peter Sel a Vill de Pais, 1964), 9. FIGURATION tot