Woman with Her Throat Cut

To the untrained eye, the bronze sculpture “Woman with Her Throat Cut” by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti might look like an abstract conglomeration of metal that vaguely resembles a woman’s elongated body. However, in the world of art this piece has much more complex and disturbing undertones. The body is splayed, disemboweled, in simultaneous convulsions of sex and death, and expresses themes of psychological torment and sexism. It is a strange hybrid of human, insect, and crustacean displayed in such a distorted way that it is difficult to comprehend at first. The sculpture’s size (9” high, 36” long) helps to blend these characteristics as well as to convey a sense of victimization and danger. The position of the limbs and configuration of the body as a whole suggests violence, pain, rape, and murder. Like most modern art, this sculpture can be better understood within the context of the time period and the artist’s life.

Woman with Her Throat Cut

Giacometti lived from 1901 to 1966 and spent most of his life living and working in Paris. He created “Woman with Her Throat Cut” in 1932 when he was 30 years old. Interestingly, he was friends with a French writer and ethnographer named Michel Leiris who had a traumatizing experience with throat surgery when he was a child. Also, in the same year he made this sculpture Giacometti had met a woman whose long neck fascinated him. These two factors may have played a role in the way Giacometti presented his sculpture with emphasis on the throat. Giacometti was a Surrealist artist and a key feature of this technique is distortion. Surrealism is about “metamorphosis, sexual duality, irrationality, and shock,” all of which seem to be captured by Giacometti’s piece. The multifaceted complexity of this work also reflects the artist’s life, which seemed to be marked by complicated relationships, beliefs, attitudes, circumstances, etc. His mind operated in logical arguments and by viewing things from multiple angles. His art, like his personality, was not straightforward. 

Alberto Giacometti

 This information enables the viewer to at least understand why the woman is portrayed in such an abstruse manner. She is expressing the complex fears and urges of the subconscious through her contorted spasms in the throes of death.  

• "Alberto Giacometti. Woman with Her Throat Cut. 1932." MoMA.org. The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81796&gt.
• Brenson, Michael. "THE DISTURBING ALLURE OF A GIACOMETTI 'WOMAN'" Archives. The New York Times, 2 Jan. 1988. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/03/arts/art-view-the-disturbing-allure-of-a-giacometti-woman.html.
• Flint, Lucy. "Alberto Giacometti: Woman with Her Throat Cut." Collection Online. Guggenheim. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
• Leiris, Michel, and Richard Howard. "Throat Cut." Manhood: A Journey from Childhood into the Fierce Order of Virility. Chicago, IL: U of Chicago, 1992. Print.