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Arts Intel Report

Encounters: Giacometti X Hatoum

Alberto Giacometti holding Three Men Walking, circa 1940s.

Until Jan 11, 2026
Silk St, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS, UK

The art of Alberto Giacometti—so profound in its form and provocative in its meaning—continues to influence generations of artists. London’s Barbican explores this legacy in a three-part series of exhibitions that places the work of contemporary sculptors in conversation with the master. In the second installment, Giacometti is paired Mona Hatoum, who was born to Palestinian parents in Beirut in 1952. After the Lebanese civil war broke out, in 1975, Hatoum was forced into exile in London. Following roughly a decade spent making performance and video art, she began creating sculptures and installations that turned household items, such as cheese graters and colanders, into objects of revulsion. Like Giacometti, Hatoum grapples with alienation, displacement, violence, incarceration, and the human condition. The exhibition contains 12 masterpieces by Giacometti and 29 artworks by Hatoum. —Harry Seymour

Photo: Succession Alberto Giacometti