Hour of the Traces
- Artist: Alberto Giacometti
- Date: 1932
- Medium: Plaster, wood and steel
- Dimensions: object: 686 x 362 x 286 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Hour of the Traces” by Alberto Giacometti, created in 1932. The work is a striking interplay of plaster, wood and steel, arranged in a cage‑like framework that almost feels alive. The suspended shapes are deliberately ambiguous – the lowest piece could be a beating heart or the pendulum of a stopped clock. Giacometti himself noted that he produced these images “complete in my mind’s eye… without stopping to ask what they might mean.” The delicate forms balance precariously, their connections unclear, as if caught in a dream. The sculpture invites the viewer to linger, to let the mystery of each shape unfold without a set interpretation. It’s a masterful example of early 1930s surrealist experimentation, where form, motion and emotion intertwine in an almost hypnotic arrangement.
See it in person
Hour of the Traces is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
