Largest ever exhibit of Alberto Giacometti opens in Shanghai

China's first-ever exhibition of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti is the largest ever staged. The retrospective in Shanghai - marking the 50th anniversary of the artist's death - comes as his works are breaking new records at auction.

Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti

Giant yet fragile, these figures are some of Giacometti's most iconic masterpieces - the bust, the towering woman, and the walking man.

On display at Shanghai's Yuz Museum are 250 works spanning the artist's entire career and showing his development through cubist and surrealist periods.

On display at Shanghai's Yuz Museum are 250 works spanning the artist's entire career and showing his development through cubist and surrealist periods.

And these paintings by Giacometti's artist father show his son growing up.

Curator Catherine Grenier hopes this huge retrospective will raise Giacometti's profile among Chinese audiences.

"It is very important for us to make the Chinese public more aware of Giacometti's work, because although they might know Giacometti's name, they have never had the chance to see the real works," she said.

"So we have brought together an exceptional collection of his works and masterpieces to be shown in China for the first time."

Giacometti, she argues, has universal appeal.

"He took references from the cultures of different civilisations, be it Egyptian, Greek or Asian, and created work which speaks of a particular time but can be understood by the whole world," she said.

Giacometti's "Pointing Man" sold for more than 140 million U.S. dollars last year, the world record for any sculpture sold at auction.

The museum hails such international recognition, though the record prices also mean soaring insurance costs...

"It's good that Giacometti now breaks auction records. It means that there is a recognition in the art world today of his significance, of his meaning," said Ashok Adiceam, director, Yuz foundation.

The museum also hopes Giacometti's stature in the history of art will attract Chinese visitors.

"You must know that Giacometti is an artist of artists, that any artist here in China who has been to a fine-arts college knows the perspective of Giacometti in his drawings, knows of course the sculptures, but knows sometimes even the paintings, because he's the only one who paints like how he paints here. You don't know if it's a drawing, a sculpture, or a painting," Ashok said.

Organisers say it's all about feeding the myth of the artist.

Although this vast exhibition will not tour, the Giacometti Foundation is planning OTHER exhibitions of Giacometti in this anniversary year - Rabat, Morocco, in June; Moscow, Russia, in September; Paris, France, in October; and Zurich, Switzerland, also in October.

The Alberto Giacometti retrospective runs at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai from the 22nd of March to the 31st of July.