Where Is Man Pointing? See It at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Q: Where is Man Pointing displayed?

The original is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Multiple casts exist; one sold at Christie's in 2015 for $141.3 million, then a world record for any sculpture.

Q: How tall is Man Pointing?

The figure stands 178 centimeters tall (about 5 feet 10 inches), roughly life-sized. Despite the human height, Giacometti's extreme thinness makes it appear stretched and insubstantial.

Q: Why are Giacometti's figures so thin?

Giacometti said figures seemed to shrink when he tried to capture how he actually perceived them. Influenced by existentialism, his emaciated forms represent human vulnerability, isolation, and the difficulty of truly seeing another person.

Q: When was Man Pointing made?

Giacometti created it in one night in 1947, during a productive period that produced several major sculptures. He worked rapidly in clay, and the rough texture records his urgent process.

Alberto Giacometti crafted this Man Pointing in 1947, one night in a burst of activity that produced several of his most important post-war sculptures. The elongated bronze figure stretches forward, one arm extended in a pointing gesture, its surface rough and eroded. The work captures human vulnerability and isolation in existentialist terms.

Giacometti developed his characteristic thin figures after World War II, influenced by Surrealism and existentialist philosophy. The pointing gesture suggests communication or direction, yet the figure seems isolated, unable to bridge the distance to whatever it indicates. The rough surface records the artist's working process, each touch of clay preserved in bronze.

The sculpture resides at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A cast sold at auction in 2015 for $141.3 million, then a world record for any sculpture. Giacometti's figures have become among the most recognized and valuable works of 20th-century art.

The original is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Multiple casts exist; one sold at Christie's in 2015 for $141.3 million, then a world record for any sculpture.

The figure stands 178 centimeters tall (about 5 feet 10 inches), roughly life-sized. Despite the human height, Giacometti's extreme thinness makes it appear stretched and insubstantial.

Giacometti said figures seemed to shrink when he tried to capture how he actually perceived them. Influenced by existentialism, his emaciated forms represent human vulnerability, isolation, and the difficulty of truly seeing another person.

Giacometti created it in one night in 1947, during a productive period that produced several major sculptures. He worked rapidly in clay, and the rough texture records his urgent process.

Man Pointing

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Alberto Giacometti

L'Homme au doigt (Pointing Man)

Walking Man I

Dog

Also at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Bird in Space

Simultaneous Contrasts: Sun and Moon

Grapes

About Man Pointing

Own Art Like This