Year 8 - Knowledge Organiser - Giacometti The width from shoulder to shoulder = 2heads The elbow roughly lines up with the bottom of the What is proportion? – Proportion is comparison ribcage just above the waist It is important to draw the human figure in proportion. The tip of the middle finger to the armpit = 3 heads Though there are subtle differences between individuals Width of the waist at the belly is 1 head length wide human proportions fit within a fairly standard range, which With the arm stretched out the hand reaches have varied considerably over different periods and regions. midthigh. In modern figure , the basic unit of measurement is Hand = face (chin to hairline) the ‘head’, which is the distance from the top of the head to the chin. Motion -The body is a supple and agile system, The proportions used in figure drawing are: influenced by gravity. It has no natural rigid position • An average person is generally 7 ½ heads tall. • An ideal figure , used when aiming for an impression 1.An exaggerated walking gait. of nobility or grace, is drawn at 8 heads tall. The hip joints move because of • An heroic figure , gods and superheroes, is 8 ½ gravity. The motion of the 1 heads tall. (bigger chest and longer legs) shoulders moves in reverse to the hip joints.

2. A sideways lying person, resting on 1 arm. This causes Power of the Stick • An unbalanced pose conveys Figure the rest of the body (ribcage) to red circle = centre of gravity dynamics, action and motion red arrow = direction of gravity • A balanced pose results in a calm and hang on the resting shoulder. The spine column is somewhat 2 green arrow = resting point tranquil image. flexible; it can be bent a little.

Leaning Balancing Standard walk The figure is at rest because This is possible The centre of gravity the centre of gravity lies because the lies between the two between the two resting points: body is resting points. This one foot and a shoulder. 'spread' fairly results in a balanced The foot of the crossed leg symmetrically. stance. does not contribute to standing.

Fall Running Here the body leans The centre of gravity When running the centre of gravity lies in to the right, causing lies next to the resting front of the resting point. This is an in balance. The point. This is in unbalanced pose resulting in a falling motion centre of gravity balance, causing the of the figure. He won't fall, because he is shifts a bit to the body to move running at speed and will put a foot in front of right as well. sideways to the left. the other preventing him from hitting the ground.

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (10th October 1901 - 11th January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor and painter. He was born in Switzerland. His dad was Giovanni Giacometti, a well- known painter. He was interested in art from an early age. He was a SURREALIST . His work had an imaginary and dreamlike quality. Most famous for, his of people In the 1940s Giacometti began to make tall, emaciated figures with roughly defined outlines, which appear to represent the human figure seen from a distance. He explained that when he made large figures, they seemed 'false'. It was only when he portrayed them as 'long and slender' that they seemed true to his vision of humanity.

The fragile, elongated figures sculpted by Giacometti seemed to reflect the precariousness of life in Europe immediately after the Second World War. Giacometti began to make these distinctive bronze sculptures in Paris in the late 1940s. His work struck a powerful chord with the existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre who saw the figures, each isolated in its own space, as a visualisation of his own ideas about the loneliness and ultimate absurdity After the mid-1950s, Giacometti of the human condition. concentrated on portraiture, For his part, Giacometti insisted that he repeatedly drawing and sculpting was simply attempting to convey his own his immediate circle of friends experience of looking at people. However, and family. Each work required this concern with visual truth was fraught numerous sittings as he with uncertainty and doubt. He often struggled to capture his subjects. reworked his over long periods His wife Annette was one of his before casting them in bronze, building up most frequent sitters. He the clay , then stripping it down, commented, ’after three days of rebuilding and stripping again, as he posing she doesn’t resemble gradually eroded the outline of the body to herself any more. I definitely its essential core. The pitted textures of don’t recognise her’ their surfaces reveal the constant movement of his hands.