The Palace at 4 a.m.
| The Palace at 4 a.m. | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Alberto Giacometti |
| Year | 1932 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Dimensions | 63.5 cm × 71.8 cm × 40 cm (25.0 in × 28.3 in × 16 in) |
| Location | Museum of Modern Art, New York City |
| Owner | Museum of Modern Art |
The Palace at 4 a.m. (French: Le palais à quatre heures du matin) is a 1932 surrealist sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.[1]
Giacometti said the work relates to "a period of six months passed in the presence of a woman who, concentrating all life in herself, transported my every moment into a state of enchantment. We constructed a fantastical palace in the night—a very fragile palace of matches. At the least false movement a whole section would collapse. We always began it again."[2]
Literary Influence
William Maxwell in So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980) links the Palace at 4 a. m. to the narrator's house while it is being built. It is mainly a scaffold structure in which he and Cletus climb all over in the evenings. Maxwell uses the Giacometti's own description of his inspiration for the piece to convey the freedom and wonder of the boys in this structure.
References
- ^ Lord, James (1997). Giacometti: A Biography. Macmillan, ISBN 9780374525255
- ^ Krauss, Rosalind E. (1981). Passages in Modern Sculpture. MIT Press, ISBN 9780262610339
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