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I met Alberto Giacometti in November 1996 thanks to a late television programme.
I was impressed by his attitude. The obsessive search of G.; his dream of a true work. The limitation to search, always with the same models in the same room, for the heart, or nucleus, of his ‘material’.
15 hours a day in his atelier; muttering, painting, sculpting, smoking cigarettes.
It felt so familiar: the grumbling at himself and that despair about one’s own inability.
The search for an utopic ideal; that true, perfect and essential form, in which with a minimum of material and with a minimum of fuss one would create a breathtaking splinter filled with beauty and tension.
Not a brush too much, in my case: not a sound too much. No clap-trap.
Like G. i wanted to explore the same models (three chords) , in the same atelier (stringquartet with 1 or 2 extra instruments).
I wanted to repeat the same portrait several times.
To paint the same woman over and over again.
The titles of my works refer to portrait studies G. made of his wife Annette.
‘Annette dans l’atelier’ is a painting from 1961.
‘Annette [1954] ‘ is a drawing from 1954.
‘Annette IV’ is a sculpture from 1962.
In 1998 i made ‘Annette dans l’atelier’ for string quartet and tuba.
It was premiered in2002 by the Alpha Contemporary Ensemble in Tokyo.
In the autumn of 2004, I made a revised version for the Ives Ensemble, who played it in May 2005.
It was then played again at the ISCM-festival 2006 in Stüttgart.
‘Annette [1954]’ (2003) for 2 piano’s and string quartet was written for the
Aarre-ensemble and is a salute to composer Paul Termos, who died that year.