Collection 🇬🇧 Calder - Rêver en équilibre

In 1933, Calder left Paris to return to the United States with his wife Louisa, partly due to the political context in Europe. The artist Marcel Duchamp had named his animated sculptures “mobiles” in 1931, a name that remained in the dictionary. During a final exhibition in Paris, Calder notably presented Shark and Whale (Requin et baleine), a sculpture in unstable equilibrium. His friend Jean Arp suggested naming his static and motionless works “stabiles”.

Back in the United States, Calder and Louisa settled in a farm in Roxbury (Connecticut) where he set up a vast studio. He created wall sculptures and large standing mobiles there, like Tightrope, which reprised the circus theme by defying gravity. In 1937, he completed his first public commission, The Mercury Fountain, a committed work for the Spanish Pavilion in Paris. It pays tribute to the anti-Franco resistance in the city of Almaden.

The wind and its unpredictable drafts power the mobiles. Every breath creates a new random choreography, bringing the works to life. The titles of the mobiles often refer to plants, chosen after their completion. Calder began designing models of large stabiles intended for public spaces, like Black Beast, imposing but light.

ettled in Paris, the capital of modern art in the 1920s, Calder created the “Cirque Calder.” It is a miniature circus featuring dozens of moving figurines made of wire and recycled materials. Calder manipulated the mechanisms himself, turning each representation into a unique artistic performance. The work quickly attracted the greatest artists of the time, like Mondrian, Miró, and Duchamp.

During the 1940s (World War II), Calder was faced with a metal shortage and turned to wood. He created the Constellations series, open sculptures made of carved and painted wooden elements. These elements are linked by thin metal rods and deployed in space. The series was named Constellations in 1943 by his friends James Johnson Sweeney and Marcel Duchamp.

At the end of his life, Calder created two series of fantasy sculptures: the Critters and the Crags. The Critters are fantastic “stabiles” (a mix between static and mobile) cut flat from a single sheet of metal and folded to stand upright. A Crag is a standing mobile made of wire and sheet metal, painted white or in bright colors, and placed in equilibrium.

During the 40s and 50s, Calder created the Fish series of mobiles using recycled materials. He drew the outline of the fish in wire and assembled pieces of colored glass, mirror, or plexiglass on it, with only one criterion: “”it has to shine”” . These large mobiles float in the air, their shiny elements catching the light like scales.

Inspired by the clinking of metal plates in the wind, Calder integrated sound into his mobiles. He created a series of mobiles equipped with gongs, heavy metal discs that resonate randomly when they collide. The gallery also exhibits strange wire “towers” that, although static, suggest imminent movement.

The episode presents Louisa, Calder’s wife, whom he met in 1929 on an ocean liner. Calder made her a long series of unique jewelry, considered “wearable sculptures”. He mainly used modest and industrial metals like brass or wire, inlaying shards of glass as gemstones. He also created a brooch shaped like the Cross of Lorraine for women in the Resistance.

Calder devoted himself to commissions for monumental works for major world metropolises (Chicago, New York, Paris, etc.). These gigantic sculptures are stabiles or standing mobiles installed in open public spaces. He designed small-scale models, which were then fabricated by specialized metalworkers. Southern Cross, a standing mobile at his home in Roxbury, consists of a “Calder red” base and a black oscillating mobile.

In 1930, a visit to Mondrian’s studio was a revelation for Calder. Inspired by the idea that colored shapes could “vibrate”, he launched into abstraction and non-figurative art. He transitioned from abstract painting to non-figurative sculptures in wire and geometric shapes. He created the first kinetic sculptures, abandoning motors to let the movement happen thanks to the wind. He was the first sculptor to introduce movement into his works.

Very sociable, Calder liked to open his studios (in Roxbury and, starting in the 50s, in Saché, France) to photographers. In Saché, in the Touraine region, he traded three mobiles for an old farm to make his residence and later built a massive 300-square-meter studio there. He worked there alone, often to the sound of the numerous mobiles suspended from the ceiling clinking.

Thanks to the success of his circus, Calder became known by creating sculpted portraits in wire. He bent the metal to “draw in space” in 3D, contrasting with the massive sculptures of the era through their lightness. He notably created portraits of Kiki de Montparnasse and the star Josephine Baker. The suspended silhouette of Josephine Baker danced with the slightest draft.

Born in 1898 in the United States to a family of artists, Calder showed his creativity from a very young age and was already the “king of upcycling”. At eleven years old, he created the metal sculptures Duck and Dog for his parents. After studying engineering, he turned to art in New York and became a press illustrator. It was at this time that he discovered and was strongly inspired by the world of the circus.

Calder designed his mobiles with such perfect balance that a simple breath of wind is enough to set them in motion. He used lightweight materials, banished symmetry, and defied gravity, making the wind a full-fledged part of the artwork. This mastery of movement and balance earned him the nickname “Wind Sculptor.” Their movements are unpredictable, offering an infinity of combinations.