Paris Sans Fin

There is, until June 15, a great exhibition of Alberto Giacometti lithographs and other works at the Singapore Art Museum ("Seeing, Feeling, Being: Alberto Giacometti"). The centerpiece is a collection of lithographs of scenes of Paris streets assembled in a project that started in 1959, titled "Paris Sans Fin" (Unending Paris).

These are sketches of objects in his studio or of street scenes and landmarks in the areas frequented by the artist who spent most of his life in Paris from 1922, except when he went back to his native Stampa, in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, to visit his family and recharge his batteries.

The title of the collection is apt. It does indeed project the feel of timeless, endless Paris, and for me, those drawings pulsed with life, as they took me back to my youth. Rue d'Alesia, Quai de Bercy were not so far from where I lived. Saint Germain, the Cupola of the Invalids, the towers of Eglise Saint Sulpice, Le Dome, a cafe near Montparnasse, all feel so familiar to me. Giacometti captured the ephemeral yet eternal poetry of Paris' street scenes.

Also to be seen at this exhibition is a rather large collection of photographs of Giacometti at work in his studio and with his family, and a movie retracing his life and is artistic evolution, in which he speaks (in French) about his art.

I was amazed that such an exhibition would be staged in Singapore, where there is probably little interest for it. Indeed, the place had few visitors, even on a Saturday afternoon. It made the experience more pleasant, as I did not have to fight with a crowd to appreciate the works on display.

Sketches of Giacometti's studio. Elongated and emaciated figures are the signature of his sculptures, some of which are standing here in his studio.


A lithographic press in a printing shop in Paris.


His wife Annette, represented here in two drawings, and his brother Diego were frequent models for Giacometti's drawings and sculptures.


Eglise Saint Sulpice, in the Saint Germain des Pres area, which I often haunted when I was in college in Paris.


Quai de Bercy, where the Halles aux vins (the wholesale market for wines) still was at the time this drawing was made.


Scenes in the Cafe "Le Dome" in the Montparnasse area.


The cupola of the Invalids at the end of a street's perspective.


Diego, sitting on the terrace of a cafe, is intensely absorbed in the contemplation of the rich emptiness of a Paris street. This drawing, perhaps, best captures the Parisian atmosphere of poetic life.