Paris has already celebrated the centenary of Giacometti’s birth this year with a superlative show at the Centre Georges Pompidou that concentrated on his drawings. Now comes the full retrospective—190 sculptures, paintings, and works on paper—organized in conjunction with the Giacometti Foundation and the Kunsthaus Zürich (where it debuted last spring). The selection looks faultless, with an all-out focus on the early Surrealist-influenced sculpture; the inclusion of later masterworks such as the spectral painting of Jean Genet (1954–55); and not too much bronze anorexia. The existential chic of the later figures may at times be unrewarding, and repetition can narrow rather than widen the gap between Giacometti and, say, Bernard Buffet. But stifle that yawn; there are surprises in store.

— Richard Shone