Interior - Annette Sewing 1954

Alberto Giacometti made this drawing of his wife, Annette, sewing, with graphite on paper. It’s all about the back and forth of line, a nervous searching for form. I can only imagine what it must have been like, trying to capture someone so familiar, so known. He has created a whole environment of his subject in the room, with a lamp hanging to the right. Look at the density of marks around Annette’s face and hands, the sheer determination to conjure her presence. There is a second portrait on the wall behind her, in a kind of ghostly echo. The lines overlap and intersect, creating a sense of depth and atmosphere, but also anxiety. The act of sewing becomes a metaphor for the artist’s own work, piecing together fragments of reality into a cohesive whole. It’s like he’s saying: making art, like life, is about embracing uncertainty. Giacometti’s work reminds me that we’re all in this together, grappling with the same fundamental questions about being and seeing.