Close to wholly abstract, this membrane–thin sculpture projects an uncanny sense of human presence. On a flat, gently undulating plaster surface, a pair of soft elliptical indentations—one vertical, the other horizontal—gaze out. When exhibited in Paris in 1929, Gazing Head attracted the attention of key Surrealist artists and writers, launching Giacometti into the center of the Parisian avant-garde.

Alberto Giacometti Gazing Head 1928-29
- Medium
- Plaster
- Dimensions
- 15 3/4 x 14 3/16 x 2 3/8" (40 x 36 x 6 cm)
- Credit
- Fractional and promised gift of Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis
- Object number
- 236.2005
- Copyright
- © 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- Alberto Giacometti has 84 works online.
- There are 1,618 sculptures online.
Installation views
We have identified these works in the following photos from our exhibition history.
In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.
If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research-and-learning/circulating-film.
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].