Augusto Giacometti

Floral graphics

He was born in Stampa in 1877, and was the second cousin of the painter Giovanni Giacometti. Following his studies in Zurich, he moved to Paris, where he dedicated himself to learn the art of floral graphics using the same style initially created by William Morris.

After, Augusto transformed his paintings into handicrafts and produced mosaics, stained glass windows, clocks and posters. After a trip to Italy, he began to break away from ornamental art and used separate colors. Augusto loved colors and his works reveal this. He created a series of pastels with a formal freedom. One could say that he paved the way for abstract art. In Switzerland, he even became famous in bourgeois circles. He spent his last years writing his autobiography, From Stampa to Florence. In 1947, he died of a heart attack. The Ciäsa Granda Museum in Stampa exhibits some of his works and in San Pietro Church in Coltura you can admire one of his canvases, "The Morning of the Resurrection", created in 1915. It is one of the first paintings to be displayed in a Swiss protestant church. In Borgonovo's San Giorgio Church, the stained glass window in the choir, entitled "Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem" (1935), was made by Augusto. Next to the church, near the graves of other Giacometti family members, you can also visit Augusto's grave.