The Decision of the Eye

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) and Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) became friends in the mid-1930s in Paris. Both were seeking a way out of surrealism that would lead back to reality. Giacometti returned to life studies, Cartier-Bresson exchanged his brush for a camera. The content of this volume revolves around the many mutual resonances in the work of these two great artists. The book opens with shots of Giacometti taken by Cartier-Bresson over a period of three decades. At the same time, the inner workings of the artists’ friendship is illuminated by a comparison between the two as draughtsmen—both searching for the ’instant décisif’—and by the question of how the photographs of one and the paintings and drawings of the other are used in por-traiture. This is a unique encounter of two giants of 20th century art and photography!In their essays, Tobia Bezzola, curator at the Kunst-haus Zurich and Yves Bonnefoy, poet and writer, not only follow the traces of this exceptional friendship with accuracy, but also place the work and visual dialogue between the two creative voices within the frame of the history of surrealist and Modern Art.This book was produced in collaboration with Henri-Cartier Bresson, the Alberto Giacometti Foundation and the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.