Perhaps the most preeminent sculptor of the twentieth century, Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) radically transformed the modern vision of art with his attenuated bronze figures whittled down to the very brink of existence. This substantial monograph supplies a new standard overview of his tremendous achievement. A decade-long labor of love by Veronique Wiesinger, Director of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti in Paris, this book emphasizes the sculptor as a thinker, underlining the philosophical (existentialist) drive of his work and its development away from Surrealism. Wiesinger"s account of Giacometti"s career pursues the artist through a series of formal breakthroughs, each of which produces a more succinct statement on existence and the human figure. At more than 300 pages, and with an abundance of color plates, this handsome volume is the essential Giacometti monograph.