Diego Giacometti

Diego Giacometti – Early years as a bon vivant and daydreamer

Diego Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, a small Swiss mountain village, on 15 November 1902. His father was the painter and graphic artist Giovanni Giacometti who had brought Post-Impressionism to Switzerland together with Cuno Amiet. The second of four children, Diego owed his name to his father’s preference for the Spanish Baroque painter Diego Velázquez, whilst two of his brothers also followed an artistic career: his younger, Bruno, was an architect, and the elder was the world-famous sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Around the end of 1903, the Giacometti family moved to Stampa where their father owned a house and erected a studio in an old barn for himself and later, his sons. The apartment in the house where Giovanni Giacometti was born formed the focal point of the family for many decades, and even as adults, the children often returned. Before Diego Giacometti discovered his artistic destiny, he spent several years as a bon vivant and dandy, living for the moment, and avoiding all obligations. Together with his elder brother Alberto - whom he had followed to France at the instigation of their mother - he preferred to visit the notorious brothels in Saint-Denis instead of earning a living. 

Two highly talented brothers in co-operation for art

When Alberto Giacometti, Diego’s elder brother and great role mode, started working for the French furniture designer Jean-Michael Franck, things also changed for Diego Giacometti. Having met the brothers through Man-Ray, Franck commissioned Alberto Giacometti to make furnishings – vases, lamps, wall sconces – which the latter moulded from plaster and bronze, soon with the indispensable help of his younger and extremely skilled brother Diego. Diego initially took on various preparation work, including sitting as a model for his brother, and later participated increasingly in the actual sculpture work, for which he received much encouragement and recognition from Alberto. In contrast to the chatty and often even effusive Alberto, Diego Giacometti was often reserved and withdrawn – perhaps a reason why he stood so long in Alberto’s shadow. Despite the extraordinarily fruitful collaboration, Diego created ever more of his own work in the joint studio at rue Hippolyte-Maindron 46. These often took the form of animal sculptures – as a small child, he had walked remote mountain paths in his native Switzerland and watched the wild animals with fascination. 

The death of his brother – a significant break

The death of Alberto Giacometti in 1966 proved to be a decisive change for Diego Giacometti. Henceforth, he was on his own, working exclusively on his own account. The private museum Fondation Maeght, for example, commissioned him with the design of the interior of the ‘Café Diego’ in Saint-Paul-de-Venice. Ironically, it was his last major commission that allowed Diego Giacometti to finally emerge from his brother’s shadow and introduce him to a wide public: He designed large parts of the interior of the Museé Picasso in Paris which opened in September 1985. However, the artist did not live to see the premiere of his artwork and its positive reception, for he died in Paris on 15 July 1985.