{"id":105278,"date":"2016-11-29T19:08:24","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=105278"},"modified":"2016-11-30T11:49:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T16:49:25","slug":"giacometti-at-the-auto-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/29\/giacometti-at-the-auto-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Giacometti at the Auto Show"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

The 1955 Citroen DS<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our new, redesigned website marks the debut of our complete digital archive: now subscribers can read every piece from The Paris Review<\/em>\u2019s sixty-three-year history. Subscribe now<\/a> and you can start reading 0ur\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away; you can also try a free ten-day trial period<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re celebrating by offering a sample of some of our favorite writing from the magazine\u2019s past. Today, an essay from our Spring 1958<\/a> issue by the Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti<\/a>, who ventured to a French motor show (ahem, Salon d\u2019Auto<\/em>)\u00a0to answer a burning question:\u00a0Can the \u201cbeauty\u201d of a car be compared to that of a statue? Giacometti brings a gift for wry metaphor to his judgments:<\/p>\n

\n

It is always difficult to see a car as a whole. The eye is usually attracted to one aspect or another, caught now by a headlight\u2014that great mechanical eye with the look of an optical instrument, a giant microscope. A car nearby looked like dribbling marmalade \u2026 It does happen sometimes that I stop in the street to look at a car which reminds me of a toad, a bull, or a grasshopper; in the same way, perhaps, as I will gaze at a cloud, watching it ruffle into the shape of a head; or again, at a tree trunk, seeing there a tiger ready to spring. A car, like every other machine, is a recent discovery. It descends not only from the carriage but from the horse and carriage combined. The resulting product is certainly strange: a complete mechanical organism, having eyes, a mouth, a heart, and intestines; it will eat and drink and go on working until it breaks\u2014what an odd parody of a living being.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the full piece here<\/a>, and subscribe now<\/a> for digital access to every short story, poem, portfolio, and essay from The Paris Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Our new, redesigned website marks the debut of our complete digital archive: now subscribers can read every piece from The Paris Review\u2019s sixty-three-year history. Subscribe now and you can start reading 0ur\u00a0back issues\u00a0right away; you can also try a free ten-day trial period.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[1519,35,370,25952,10484,25912,364,19610,25951,25949,25953,964,25950,13786,13991],"class_list":["post-105278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-alberto-giacometti","tag-art","tag-back-issues","tag-car-shows","tag-cars","tag-digital-archive","tag-essays","tag-issue-18","tag-motor-shows","tag-new-website","tag-salon-dauto","tag-sculpture","tag-spring-1958","tag-statues","tag-the-fifties"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn Which Alberto Giacometti Scopes Out Some French Cars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In our Spring 1958 issue, the sculptor Alberto Giacometti 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