Society for the Promotion of the Egyptian Museum Berlin

Vom 27. Februar bis 24. Mai 2009 zeigt das Kunsthaus Zürich Meisterwerke aus dem Ägyptischen Museum Berlin - Büsten von Echnaton und Nofretete, den Würfelhocker des Senemut, den «Grünen Kopf» u.a.m. - zusammen mit Plastiken, Gemälden und Zeichnungen Alberto Giacomettis, dessen Schaffen zutiefst von der altägyptischen Kunst geprägt war.

Die Analogien zwischen dem Werk des bedeutendsten Schweizer Künstlers des 20. Jahrhunderts, Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), und der altägyptischen Kunst werden zum ersten Mal in einer Ausstellung zur Anschauung gebracht. Dafür wechseln wertvolle Leihgaben aus dem Ägyptischen Museum von Berlin ins Kunsthaus Zürich. Für den Besucher wird überraschend nachvollziehbar, wie Giacometti sich am ägyptischen «Stil» orientiert: in der Konzentration auf das Menschenbild, im Verhältnis von Figur und Raum und der künstlerischen Intention, dem Individuum ewige Gegenwart zu verleihen.

Die Ausstellung ist für sehende, sehbehinderte und behinderte Besucher konzipiert. Erklärungstexte gibt es auch in Brailleschrift, Großbuchstaben oder via Audio-Guide.

•   Alberto Giacometti, Amenophi IV o Akhenaton
•   The "Berlin Green Head", drawn by Giacometti
•   The "Berlin Green Head"

Ancient Egyptian art reflected in the work of a giant of modern art -
this exhibition will open new perspectives by drawing our gaze towards the more formal essentials, away from the iconological mode of viewing works of art, thus allowing us to take a look at the artist behind the work.
The Ancient Egyptians exerted an intense fascination over Alberto Giacometti, a fascination which was to last over several decades. Countless drawings of Egyptian originals (including sculptures in the Berlin collection) bear witness to this fact; Giacometti mentioned Egypt time and again in his writings and interviews.
Above all, it is his visualization of space through pictorial means, that shows his affinity to the Ancient Egyptians, whose art so much inspired him. What interested him the most was the figurative approach of the ancient artist, whom he saw, not as anonymous (in contrast to the commonly held view of Egyptologists), but as an individual, and someone who had wrestled with form and style no less than he himself had. Works by Giacometti from the 'Sammlung der Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung' in Zurich, now integrated into the sculpture halls of the Egyptian Museum's permanent exhibition, invite visitors to listen to a dialogue between artists, as they communicate with each other in a common language of forms, which traverses several millennia.
Giacometti's work, having been placed in these surroundings, reveals how steadfastly it is rooted in the past, as well as allowing the art of the Ancient Egyptians to, once again, exude an extraordinary freshness and relevance.
Maurizio Nannucci's 'ALL ART HAS BEEN CONTEMPORARY', which is displayed outside of the museum, can be taken as an appropriate invitation to 'GIACOMETTI, THE EGYPTIAN'.

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