Augusto GIACOMETTI

"Qui riposa il maestro dei colori."- "Here lies the master of colour."

Augusto Giacometti is a Swiss painter and designer who is the pioneer of the study of colour and of abstraction. He is the cousin of Giovanni Giacometti.
After being trained as an art teacher at the Zürich University of the Arts, he moved to Paris to study with the Art Nouveau master Eugène Grasset from 1897 to 1901. He then lived in Florence until 1915 studying Early Renaissance masters.
Back in Zürich, he joined the Dadaist movement (1917) and collaborated with Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hugo Ball. He took part of the 8th Dada-soirée on April 9th 1919.
He was one of the first painter of the 20th century to take steps into abstract painting and was a member of the abstract group "Das Neue Leben".
Giacometti was one of the outstanding Swiss painters to emerge from Art Nouveau and Symbolism to Abstraction. With his research and work on colour, he is considered one of the pioneer of Abstract Art and has left an indelible mark in the history of art.
His achievements in the fields of stained glass, monumental wall painting and posters are also notable.
We can follow the evolution of his style towards abstraction through his posters: a simplification of forms, the use of large areas of primary and secondary colours (especially in his butterfly posters for the "XVII International Fine Arts Exhibition" and "Die Schöne Schweiz" and his poster for the exhibition of his work at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1924).