Man Pointing

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.