All That Is Solid Melts into Air

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As a new exhibition opens of Giacometti's sculptures, Iain Gale assesses the work that offers a powerful insight into the frailty and irony of the human condition

Look carefully among the forest of matchstick-thin figures and you will find it. A single canvas painted in an almost monochrome palette of brick red and brown. The subject: an apple on a sideboard. The artist: Alberto Giacometti. Apple on a Sideboard is one of the most surprising and significant works in the first major show devoted to Giacometti in this country for over 30 years. Of course the painting is a visual metaphor for human isolation - a Cezannesque exercise in fruity symbolism. Yet it is much more …