Calder Hyper Mobility
In the early 1930s, Alexander Calder invented an entirely new mode of art, the mobile – a kinetic form of sculpture in which carefully balanced components manifest their own unique systems of movement. These works operate in highly sophisticated ways, ranging from gentle rotations to “just as one composes colours, or forms, so one can compose motions.” Whitney Museum of American Art focussed on the artists extraordinary breadth of work in early June this year. On show was his turn to radical abstraction in 1930 and its continued quest throughout the subsequent decades of his career.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), The Arches
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Howard and Jean Lipman 82.44ae © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph Jerry L. Thompson.
TITLE: Alexander Calder (1898-1976), The Arches
DIMENSIONS: Painted steel, 106 × 107 1/2 × 87inches. (269.2 × 273.1 × 221 cm)
YEAR: 1959
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Parasite
© 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
TITLE: Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Parasite
MEDIUM: Sheet metal, rod, wire, and paint
DIMENSIONS: 41 × 68 × 28 inches. (104.1 × 172.7 × 71.1 cm)
YEAR: 1947
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
Witney curator Jay Sanders noted, “Encompassing a vast array of engineering forms, Calder’s artistic practice transformed the parameters of art making through an unceasing exploration of movement and sound. As its title suggests Calder: Hypermobility, gathers important objects to reveal specifically the diverse taxonomy of movements within Calder’s work.” This selection also draws inspiration from Calder’s notion of ‘disparity’ – a term the artist used to describe the complex variation and disjuncture of forms, colours, densities and movements within a single work and across multiple objects.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Calder Foundation, New York. © ARS, NY.
TITLE: Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
MEDIUM: Wood, wire, glass, and string
DIMENSIONS: 52 3/4 x 26 x 12 inches. (134 x 66 x 30 cm)
YEAR: 1942
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Dancers and Sphere (maquette for 1939 New York World’s Fair) set in motion in Calder’s “small shop” New York City storefront studio, 1938. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Herbert Matter, courtesy Calder Foundation, New York.
TITLE: Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
YEAR: 1938
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
The exhibition contained the activation of his restored motorised sculptures, done for the first time in eighty years. Influenced in part by the artist’s fascination and engagement with choreography, Calder’s sculptures contain an embedded performativity that is reflected in their idiosyncratic motions and the perceptual responses they provoke in the viewers. Even in his stationary wok, a sense of implied movement, deliberate staging and unfolding complexity is palpable.
Calder with the frame for Snake and the Cross (1936) in his New York City storefront studio, winter 1936. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Herbert Matter, courtesy Calder Foundation, New York.
The simplest forms in the universe are the sphere and the circle. I represent them by disks and then I vary them… spheres of different sizes, densities, colours and volumes, floating in space, traversing clouds, sprays of water, currents of air, viscosities and odours – of the greatest variety and disparity.
– CALDER
Aluminum Leaves, Red Post
The Lipman Family Foundation; long-term loan to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York T.1996.7. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Brian Kelley.
TITLE: Aluminum Leaves, Red Post
MEDIUM: Painted sheet metal
DIMENSIONS: 60 3/4 x 40 3/4 x 42 1/2 inches. (154.3 x 103.5 x 108 cm)
YEAR: 1941
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
Hanging Spider
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Mrs. John B. Putnam Bequest 84.41. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Brian Kelley.
TITLE: Hanging Spider
MEDIUM: Painted sheet metal and wire
DIMENSIONS: 49 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches. (125.7 x 90.2 cm).
YEAR: 1940
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
Hour Glass
The Lipman Family Foundation; long-term loan to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York T.1996.8. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Brian Kelley.
TITLE: Hour Glass
MEDIUM: Painted steel, wire, rod, and weights
DIMENSIONS: 60 x 22 1/8 x 17 5/8 inches. (152.4 x 56.2 x 44.8 cm).
YEAR: 1941
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
Installation view of Calder
Hypermobility (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 9, 2017-October 23, 2017).
TITLE: Installation view of Calder
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Ron Amstutz
IMAGE COURTESY: Whitney Museum of American Art
