EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Giacometti in New York

If you are in Manhattan for the Christmas shopping season and need a few minutes' peace, pop on over to the Eykyn Maclean Gallery at East 67th Street where a small but magnificent collection of Giacometti drawings and sculptures are on display. The provenance of the sixty or more items, coming from a Swiss family close to Giacometti's own, guarantees quality and you will not be disappointed. The show is stunning.

My personal favorite is the life-size head of Diego, the artist's brother (above). It is wafer-thin, of course, but the hair sprouting from the head gives it a grandeur and dynamism that offsets the normal center of gravity in a face to bring it dramatically alive. It's also interesting to see how some of the sketches, drawn and sculpted, don't match the brilliance of the latter but are still crucial steps in his progress without which the masterpiece would never have happened.

I am, separately, amazed how small, private galleries can regularly put on shows that put major museums to shame. This one, from a relatively new gallery, is one of them.

The Eykyn Maclean Gallery is at 23 East 67th Street. The exhibition closes December 18th. Get there if you can!