L'Homme au doigt

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L'Homme au doigt
English: Man Pointing or Pointing Man
ArtistAlberto Giacometti
Year1947 (1947)
TypeBronze
Dimensions180 cm (70 in)

L'Homme au doigt ([lɔm o dwa], "The Man with the Finger"; also called Pointing Man or Man Pointing) is a 1947 bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, that became the most expensive sculpture ever when it sold for US$141.3 million on May 11, 2015.[1]

Giacometti made six casts of the work plus one artist's proof. Pointing Man is in the collections of New York's

Tate Gallery, and the Des Moines Art Center.[2] One of the others is also in a museum, and the rest are in foundation collections or owned privately.[3]

L’homme au doigt sold for $126 million, or $141.3 million with fees, in Christie's 11 May 2015 Looking Forward to the Past sale in New York, a record for a sculpture at auction. The work had been in Sheldon Solow's private collection for 45 years.[4] According to Giacometti, he created the sculpture in a time crunch for a show's deadline, describing it being made “in one night between midnight and nine the next morning”.[5]

Christie's called it a "rare masterpiece", and "Giacometti’s most iconic and evocative sculpture", and estimated that it would sell "in the region of $130 million".[3] Christie's also noted that the cast in their auction is believed to be the only one that Giacometti "painted by hand in order to heighten its expressive impact".[3]

Another Giacometti work, L'Homme qui marche I, had also been the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, when it sold for £65 million (US$104.3 million) at Sotheby's, London on 3 February 2010.[6][7]

Description

L'Homme au doigt is a bronze sculpture depicting a slender figure measuring nearly 6 feet (1.8 m) tall with its index finger extending. This is also called the pointing man.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Picasso's Women of Algiers smashes auction record". BBC News. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  2. ^ "L'homme au Doigt (Man Pointing) - Works - Des Moines Art Center". Des Moines Art Center. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "Giacometti's iconic L'Homme au doigt (Pointing Man)". Christies. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  4. ^ Reyburn, Scott (11 May 2015). "Two Artworks Top $100 Million Each at Christie's Sale (Artsbeat blog)". New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  5. ^ a b Schjeldahl, Peter (11 June 2018). "Giacometti's Skinny Sublimity". The New Yorker. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  6. ^ "Giacometti sculpture fetches £65m at Sotheby's auction". BBC. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  7. ^ Ignacio Villarreal. "Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man I Sells for a Record-Breaking $104,327,006 at Sotheby's". artdaily.com. Retrieved 3 February 2021.