Dog Giacometti Analysis

2 Introduction

Alberto Giacometti created artwork that reflected the emotions and turbulent transition from surrealism to contemporary modern art. When one compares the themes of Giacometti’s sculpture to Robert Wallace’s poem, it is possible to clearly identify simple forms have a lot of subtle details. There are many aspects that influenced the artist and the writer to create new things. Firstly, Alberto Giacometti was heavily influenced by the surrealists of the 1920’s and later found his artistic expression and his early life influences. His choices in the materials used played a part in his art, which can be seen with the sculpture “Dog”. Secondly, this transitions into the maturing of his artwork post war, which was during a period of time when art was expanding and shifting into modern art. Later, Robert Wallace was inspired to write his poem about Giacometti’s sculpture. He was very particular about his style of writing and constantly playing with the free verse form. Both men had a lot of similarities during their time, but essentially both focuses on the themes of relationships and human forms. Alberto Giacometti uses bronze and meticulous detail in the sculpture, “Dog”, to invoke a …show more content…
It is heavily influenced by ekphrasis, which the poetry foundation describes as “the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.” This form of poetry allows the reader to understand that Wallace is trying to expand the meaning behind Giacometti’s “Dog” sculpture. He writes a story or viewpoint on the dog and expands the meaning through his word choice, the form of the poem, and how he ends the poem. Wallace often wrote and perfected his writing craft towards the end of his life. He was well versed in writing free verse poetry, which still required some form of