It was in the heady climate of 1920s Paris that Calder developed his artistic sensibility. A young engineer who decided to pursue a career as an artist, Calder had enrolled at the Art Students League in New York before moving to Paris in 1926. Soon after arriving in Montparnasse, Calder embarked upon his first major body of work that reflected his lifelong fascination with the circus: crafting lilliputian figures and props from simple, easily readily materials such as wood, wire, metal, cloth and cork, he summoned an imaginative universe comprised of animals, clowns and acrobats which he would activate in his legendary performances.
Calder’s fascination for the circus, a theme that would continue to appear throughout his career, also shows itself in this work from the collection of Ruth O’Hara. It shows the remarkable economy of line with which Calder was able to render form. Indeed, Calder’s early work, especially the Circus installation, can be seen to set many of the principles and concepts that would inform his groundbreaking sculptural practice just years later.
來源
William and Rosario Drew, New York (gifted by the artist) The Estate of Mr. And Mrs. William B.F. Drew (by descent from the above) Doyle, New York, November 12, 2008, lot 1109 Acquired at the above sale by Ruth O'Hara
過往展覽
Paris, Parc des Expositions, Port de Versailles, Association Artistique les Surindépendants, October 25 - November 24, 1930 San Francisco, John Berggruen Gallery, Independent Visions: American Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture, July 31 – August 31, 2009 New York, Barbara Mathes Gallery, Master Drawings New York, January 24 – March 9, 2013 New York, James Goodman Gallery, Calder: Space in Play, October 22 – December 19, 2014 New York, Hammer Galleries, Modern Masters: Between the Wars, November 1, 2016 – February 28, 2017
文學
Jacques Prévert, Couleurs de Braque, Calder, Miró, Paris, 1981, p. 59 (illustrated) Arnauld Pierre, Calder: La sculpture en mouvement, Paris, 1996, p. 25 (l'Association artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated) Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2008, fig. 4, p. 187 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated) Arnauld Pierre, Calder: Mouvement et réalité, Paris, 2009, p. 92 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated) Alexander Calder: Les années parisiennes, 1926-1933, exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2009, p. 93 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated) Calder – Picasso, exh. cat., Musée Picasso, Paris, 2019, fig. 8, p. 228 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated)
Alexander Calder worked as an abstract sculptor and has been commonly referred to as the creator of the mobile. He employed industrious materials of wire and metal and transformed them into delicate geometric shapes that respond to the wind or float in air. Born into a family of sculptors, Calder created art from childhood and moved to Paris in 1926, where he became a pioneer of the international avant-garde. In addition to his mobiles, Calder produced an array of public constructions worldwide as well as drawings and paintings that feature the same brand of abstraction. Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania.
signed "Calder" lower right ink and crayon on paper 19 x 24 1/4 in. (48.3 x 61.6 cm) Executed circa 1930, this work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A23599.
