.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
'[The] underlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe, or part thereof. For that is a rather large model to work from. What I mean is the idea of detached bodies in space, of different sizes and densities, perhaps of different colours and temperatures, and surrounded and interlarded with wisps of gaseous condition, and some at rest, while others move in peculiar manners, seems to me the ideal source of form'
(A. Calder, quoted in J.M. Marter, Alexander Calder, Cambridge 1991, pp. 110-111).
Alexander Calder's Untitled is a cosmogony in miniature: a series of white and red discs twist and turn in gentle motion, balanced by a coil of wire on the other side of a fulcrum which itself is a black, arcing support. In this work, Calder has managed to balance his materials perfectly - just as he has also balanced his poetry, playfulness, innovation and sense of colour. Untitled is one of Calder's celebrated Mobiles, works in which motion plays a constant factor, allowing their appearance to change according to their surroundings, either through the intervention of eddies in the air or a helpful prod from the viewer.
Calder's ingenuity is showcased in the gem-like Untitled by the coiled wire which provides the counterweight to the floating discs on the other side of the see-saw-like composition. This fern-like twist resembles a diminutive spiral galaxy, adding to the sense that Untitled is an orrery for our age, a reconstruction of a fragment of our Cosmos. This galaxy is a counterpoint to the world-like discs with which it is in a perpetual dance.
At the same time, the spiral wire recalls new ferns, shells and other examples of spirals in nature, adding an organic twist to the sculpture, rooting it in our world. The form of the spiral is itself almost primal, appearing in the artefacts and jewellery of a range of cultures from ancient times until today, echoing its own role in nature. Its presence in Untitled may in fact invoke this different sense of the universal: Calder travelled a great deal during the post-war years, and was exposed to peoples and objects from around the world. Perhaps this helped to explain the presence of the spiral in a number of his works. These uses of timeless symbols, of shapes and forms that are elegantly reduced to the point that they have a fundamental truth to them, reveals the way in which Calder's visual vocabulary managed to balance the abstract and the figurative. The discs and spiral in Untitled have figurative origins, be it in the night sky or in the world around us. They take forms that already exist. As Calder explained,
'When I have used spheres and discs, I have intended that they should represent more than what they just are. More or less as the earth is a sphere but also has some miles of gas about it, volcanoes upon it, and the moon making circles around it, and as the sun is a sphere but is also a source of intense heat, the effect of which is felt at great distances. A ball of wood or a disc of metal is rather a dull object without this sense of something emanating from it' (A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather (ed.), Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., Washington, New York & London, 1998, p. 62).
Nonetheless, while the circles of white and red in Untitled may be seen to be anchored in the world around us, they also invoke the language of abstraction, existing as formal elements in their own rights. In this, they recall the origins of the Mobiles in 1920s Paris. Calder himself told the tale:
'My entrance into the field of abstract art came about as a result of a visit to the studio of Piet Mondrian in Paris in 1930.
'I was particularly impressed by some rectangles of colour he had tacked on his wall in a pattern after his nature.
'I told him I would like to make it oscillate - he objected' (A. Calder, quoted in C. Giménez, & A.S.C. Rower (ed.), Calder: Gravity and Grace, London, 2004, p. 52).
Calder advanced this idea himself, using his engineering experience and his knowledge of creating mechanical toys to create works that involved colour and movement alike. It was his friend Marcel Duchamp who dubbed these moving works Mobiles, playing on the additional French meaning for the word: motives.
Those motives are clear in the elegant poetry in motion that is Untitled. Calder has allowed the universe to express itself in the movements of the various elements that sit perched atop the base. This is a gentle dance - indeed, it recalls the fact that Mondrian and Calder themselves shared a great love of dance, although their approaches were tellingly different. Where Mondrian was interested in the precision of the moves, adhering to them in a manner that was perhaps reflected in his grid-like paintings, Calder was a more spontaneous, playful figure on the floor. And it is play and wit that is present in Untitled in its ceaseless, precarious waltz.
The sense of motion enshrined in Untitled was all the more appropriate in the post-war period in which it was made: this sculpture was created against the backdrop of Abstract Expressionism and other advances in the avant gardes on both sides of the Atlantic. Calder remained at the forefront, a hero of many movements, with his work exhibited widely in Europe and the United States alike. The movement encapsulated in the dripping, say, of Jackson Pollock or the emphatic brushwork of Adolph Gottlieb was a close cousin of Calder's own advances from more than a decade earlier, showing the way in which his legacy retained an incredible freshness and validity throughout his career.
(A. Calder, quoted in J.M. Marter, Alexander Calder, Cambridge 1991, pp. 110-111).
Alexander Calder's Untitled is a cosmogony in miniature: a series of white and red discs twist and turn in gentle motion, balanced by a coil of wire on the other side of a fulcrum which itself is a black, arcing support. In this work, Calder has managed to balance his materials perfectly - just as he has also balanced his poetry, playfulness, innovation and sense of colour. Untitled is one of Calder's celebrated Mobiles, works in which motion plays a constant factor, allowing their appearance to change according to their surroundings, either through the intervention of eddies in the air or a helpful prod from the viewer.
Calder's ingenuity is showcased in the gem-like Untitled by the coiled wire which provides the counterweight to the floating discs on the other side of the see-saw-like composition. This fern-like twist resembles a diminutive spiral galaxy, adding to the sense that Untitled is an orrery for our age, a reconstruction of a fragment of our Cosmos. This galaxy is a counterpoint to the world-like discs with which it is in a perpetual dance.
At the same time, the spiral wire recalls new ferns, shells and other examples of spirals in nature, adding an organic twist to the sculpture, rooting it in our world. The form of the spiral is itself almost primal, appearing in the artefacts and jewellery of a range of cultures from ancient times until today, echoing its own role in nature. Its presence in Untitled may in fact invoke this different sense of the universal: Calder travelled a great deal during the post-war years, and was exposed to peoples and objects from around the world. Perhaps this helped to explain the presence of the spiral in a number of his works. These uses of timeless symbols, of shapes and forms that are elegantly reduced to the point that they have a fundamental truth to them, reveals the way in which Calder's visual vocabulary managed to balance the abstract and the figurative. The discs and spiral in Untitled have figurative origins, be it in the night sky or in the world around us. They take forms that already exist. As Calder explained,
'When I have used spheres and discs, I have intended that they should represent more than what they just are. More or less as the earth is a sphere but also has some miles of gas about it, volcanoes upon it, and the moon making circles around it, and as the sun is a sphere but is also a source of intense heat, the effect of which is felt at great distances. A ball of wood or a disc of metal is rather a dull object without this sense of something emanating from it' (A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather (ed.), Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., Washington, New York & London, 1998, p. 62).
Nonetheless, while the circles of white and red in Untitled may be seen to be anchored in the world around us, they also invoke the language of abstraction, existing as formal elements in their own rights. In this, they recall the origins of the Mobiles in 1920s Paris. Calder himself told the tale:
'My entrance into the field of abstract art came about as a result of a visit to the studio of Piet Mondrian in Paris in 1930.
'I was particularly impressed by some rectangles of colour he had tacked on his wall in a pattern after his nature.
'I told him I would like to make it oscillate - he objected' (A. Calder, quoted in C. Giménez, & A.S.C. Rower (ed.), Calder: Gravity and Grace, London, 2004, p. 52).
Calder advanced this idea himself, using his engineering experience and his knowledge of creating mechanical toys to create works that involved colour and movement alike. It was his friend Marcel Duchamp who dubbed these moving works Mobiles, playing on the additional French meaning for the word: motives.
Those motives are clear in the elegant poetry in motion that is Untitled. Calder has allowed the universe to express itself in the movements of the various elements that sit perched atop the base. This is a gentle dance - indeed, it recalls the fact that Mondrian and Calder themselves shared a great love of dance, although their approaches were tellingly different. Where Mondrian was interested in the precision of the moves, adhering to them in a manner that was perhaps reflected in his grid-like paintings, Calder was a more spontaneous, playful figure on the floor. And it is play and wit that is present in Untitled in its ceaseless, precarious waltz.
The sense of motion enshrined in Untitled was all the more appropriate in the post-war period in which it was made: this sculpture was created against the backdrop of Abstract Expressionism and other advances in the avant gardes on both sides of the Atlantic. Calder remained at the forefront, a hero of many movements, with his work exhibited widely in Europe and the United States alike. The movement encapsulated in the dripping, say, of Jackson Pollock or the emphatic brushwork of Adolph Gottlieb was a close cousin of Calder's own advances from more than a decade earlier, showing the way in which his legacy retained an incredible freshness and validity throughout his career.