Alberto Giacometti, Spoon Woman, 1926-1927. Bronze. (The Museum of Modern Art)

For your December and January art viewing, I have two quite different suggestions.

The exhibition of Alberto Giacometti at the Museum of Modern Art has rightfully gotten a lot of press. The artist’s first New York City retrospective in 30 years, it continues through January 8, and is unquestionably a must-see show. “Glass of the Avant-Garde from Vienna Secession to Bauhaus,” on the other hand, is a little known gem. It is taking place at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum through February 24.

Giacometti (1901-1966), a Swiss born artist, lived in Paris most of his life, and is best known for his avant-garde Surrealist sculpture. In this show, celebrating the centennial of his birth, we get to see the full range of Giacometti’s work, including 90 sculptures, 40 paintings, and 60 drawings. Though large, the show does not overwhelm. The installation is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Think of Giacometti and most people envision tall, emaciated stick figures and heads. Or, perhaps, the wonderfully imaginative The Palace at 4 AM, or the grisly Woman with her throat cut (both works from 1932) in the permanent collection of the Modern. These are indeed key parts of the artist’s oeuvre, but the present exhibition reminds us that there is much more.

Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man, 1947. Bronze. (The Museum of Modern Art)

The earliest portion of the show, which is arranged chronologically, includes paintings in a Post-Impressionist mode, such as his 1921 Self Portrait. Flat, controlled, almost geometric, it nonetheless exudes color and passion. Also from the years 1918-1927, we see his first unmistakable pieces of modern sculpture, Torso (1925) and Spoon Woman (1926-27). Both of these celebrate women and sexuality, but in an abstract sense parallel to works of Brancusi, and influenced both by African art and Cubism. During the late ’20s, we see the beginnings and development of Surrealism, culminating in the fully realized Surrealist works of the ’30s.

From the mid 1930s to 1945, the artist returned to studies from nature and models in order to express “the totality of life.” His friends at the time included Jean-Paul Sartre and Samuel Beckett, and his reputation grew internationally. During this time he also painted, mostly portraits and still lifes, composed of numerous lines of energy and mostly monochromatic colors. From 1947 to 1951, he lived in post-war Paris, drawing from the model, creating more Surrealist sculpture, and beginning his exploration of tall, skinny figures of men, women, animals, and objects. And from 1951 till the end of his life, he continued painting, drawing, and sculpting with equal intensity, developing earlier ideas, and growing within them.

Alberto Giacometti, Self-Portrait, 1921. Oil on canvas. (The Museum of Modern Art)

One day as I was looking down from a gallery window high up on 57th Street onto Fifth Avenue, I had a Giacometti-eye view of tall, skinny forms scrambling across the street. Isn’t this the most powerful effect art can have, to inform how we see? Although he is known as a Surrealist, he saw himself in realist terms, “rendering my vision” of the appearance and constant change of things. Perhaps seeing Giacometti will also affect your own perceptions; he managed to convey the uneasiness, anxieties, and inequities of modern life without specific comments. Indeed, his work is never propagandistic or programmatic; he produced the most poignant kind of art, that which speaks for itself.

On a totally different note, the glass exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt is a treat, a fairyland of sparkling glass bowls, bottles, vases, and wine goblets. This show begs the question of “crafts” versus “arts.” The works parallel similar designs of their times in painting and sculpture, as well as design. There are explanations of glass techniques on wall labels; the glass ranges from clear to blues, reds, wine, green, and amber; from delicate to heavy; from simple to ornate. Engraving on glass is especially interesting.

Nora Ortlieb, Vase, c. 1932. (Photo by A. Bröhan)

Borrowed from the Torsten Bröhan Collection of the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid, considered the world’s finest collection of early 20th-century glass from Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland, there are nearly 200 examples on view. Many are made by leading designers, such as Joseph Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and other major 20th-century architects and designers.

The six sections of the show are: 1) Style 1900; 2) The Viennese Secession; 3)The Later Work of the Wiener Werkstätte; 4) Avant-Garde Ornament; 5) Redefining the Engraver’s Art; 6) Designing for Industry.

The esthetics of Art Nouveau dominated Europe at the end of the last century. Originally, the painter Gustav Klimt and the designer/architect Josef Hoffmann led the way out of what many considered to be the decadence of Art Nouveau. But after sober, architectonic beginnings, the Wiener Werkstätte, founded in 1903, moved away from starkness towards elegance and exuberance, coming to an end only in 1933. Interestingly, the ending of the exhibition with the Bauhaus is, in a way, a reprise of the beginning; both the Wiener Werkstätte and the Bauhaus espoused a unified school of arts and most crafts.

Designer unknown, Vase, c. 1904. (Photo by A. Bröhan)

A few examples of works in the show are the 1904 Lötz Factory vase in the exquisite glass case display on the left as you enter the first room. It is made of blown colored glass, overlaid with iridescent ovals and globules. Influenced by Tiffany, the sea-like waves and busy, organic forms evoke the paintings of Klimt. A vase from 1931 from the Czech Republic in the room to the left is made of clear glass with Kandinsky-like motifs painted on it. A different kind of glass vase by Nora Ortlieb in 1932 is clear with an engraved design depicting a supine maiden, echoed in curves by an exotic bird, trees, and clouds. The last room of the exhibit features Bauhaus utilitarian and affordable objects, such as the “Kubus” stackable sculpture designed for the new electric refrigerators, which look ahead to contemporary plastic storage containers.

Interspersed with the glass are posters from the times. In short, the exhibit offers us a delightful history of avant-garde movements during the first half of the 20th century, as seen through the special medium of glass.

If you have never been to the Cooper-Hewitt, that alone is worth the trip. The setting in the Carnegie Mansion’s oak paneled rooms, with Tiffany-designed windows overlooking beautiful gardens, is one of New York City’s most peaceful oases.

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St, between 5th and 6th Aves. Hours: 10:30-5:45 daily; 10:30-8:15 Fri. Closed Wed. Admission: $12; $8.50 students with ID and people over 65; Fri 4:30-8:15 p.m., pay what you wish. Free at all times for Juilliard students with ID.

The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2 East 91st St. Hours: Tues: 10am-9pm; Wed-Sat.: 10-5; Sun. noon-4:30. Closed Mondays and federal holidays. Admission: $8; $5 for seniors/students.

Greta Berman is an art historian on the liberal arts faculty.