On October 11, Craig Krull Gallery will open the first west coast exhibition of Ernst Scheidegger’s photographs of Alberto Giacometti and his studio. A Swiss photographer living today in Zurich, Scheidegger received early training from Hans Finsler and later became a free-lance photographer for the Magnum Agency. Scheidegger met Giacometti while serving in the military and the two remained life-long friends. This exhibition presents photographs that Scheidegger made of Giacometti and his Paris studio from 1943 up until the time of the artist’s death in 1966. Giacometti moved into the small 15 1/2 x 16’ studio at 46 rue Hippolyte-Maindron in Montparnasse in 1927 at the age of 25 and it remained his studio for the rest of his life. As Scheidegger said, “I was one of the lucky ones allowed to experience his life. Giacometti was not a legend to me. I treasured his absolute will for freedom. I loved and respected this man.” Surprisingly, no monograph had been published on Giacometti’s work until Scheidegger published the first one, Alberto Giacometti: Schriften, Fotos, Zeichnungen in 1958. The photographs in this exhibition were selected from Mr. Scheidegger’s 1990 book, Traces of a Friendship. Alberto Giacometti.

Concurrently, the gallery will present its fourth solo exhibition of the sculpture of Woods Davy. For the past twenty-five years, Davy has worked with natural elements, usually incorporating various types of stone in fluid balancing acts that reflect the artist’s “Western Zen” sensibility. The current body of work is an installation entitled, “Standing Stones.” This cluster of organic columns of stones balanced on top of one another is a barren copse centered in the space. The stones have a natural flow in their linkages, like a vertebrae, and seem to sway as if giant seaweed on the ocean floor.