Standing Woman

Artist Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901-1966)

Dateabout 1958

DimensionsH: 30 5/8 in. (77.8 cm); W: 5 1/8 in. (14.2 cm); Depth: 7 11/16 in. (19.5 cm)

MediumCast Bronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Thomas T. Solley

Object number

1996.14

Not on View

Label TextOnce an object has been constructed, I have a tendency to rediscover in it, transformed and displaced, images, impressions, [and] facts which have deeply moved me (often without my knowing it). Standing Woman is at once a combination of complicated forms and an existential argument. As a form, Standing Woman is so thin that, from a distance, the sculpture resembles a line—similar to the experience of seeing a real person at a great distance, especially on a sunny day. Up close, however, the work reveals itself to be an exaggerated collection of pitted surfaces that leaves the viewer with an impression of the artist’s process as his hands worked the clay model. Put another way, from afar Standing Woman seems generic and slight, while up close it seems individualized and substantial. In this reading, Standing Woman could be any woman; she may even stand for every woman. Standing Woman thus suggests the precariousness of human existence.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero," 2011.