Meeting Giacometti’s dog (in Scenes… #6)

Meeting Giacometti’s dog.

This piece has a very convoluted inspiration. There is not much in it from the original design, but still, there is something. In April 2012 I attended European Geophysical Union conference in Vienna, an amazing city (where from my paternal family comes from), famous among many other things, for the activity of two painters in the 1900-10, a secession (or Art Nouveau) movement instigator Gustav Klimt and his younger friend Egon Schiele. Needless to say, I spent some time looking for their art in various museums there. It is the latter, Schiele, that I prefer. Of his work I like his town-scapes most (not to mention his incredibly erotic nudes). One his paintings that I like very much is a town landscape entitled “Stein on the Danube, seen from the South”, of 1913, see below

As for some strange reason, when I try to imitate a painter, I merge their several paintings into one thing, almost as to say, I try the put together things that I like most in a given artist. In this case, I liked very much the tower of the church in the middle, I liked very much the empty square to the left, but as for the houses, I liked much more sort of rural houses, like those in his painting “Town Edge-Krumau Town Crescent– I” of 1918

Egon Schiele, Stadtende – Krumau Häuserbogen, 1918

As a result, you have the square (not that very empty anymore), you have the church tower and you have the houses, some with their windows open, around the square, but all arranged differently. You might never have guessed that this is inspired by Schiele. But it is.

And obviously you have Rhino and the dog. I do not comment on Rhino (my daughter claims it is my alter ego), but the dog’s lineage is worth mentioning. It is Giacometti’s dog. Alberto Giacometti in a later phase of his carrier liked to sculpt all his subjects very elongated, like the dog below. As I like Giacometti, I invited his dog into my cutout, and she came!

Alberto Giacometti, The Dog, 1951

More Alberto Giacometti’s works can be found at Artsy