.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A14017.
“Why must sculpture be static?... You look at abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect but it is always still. The next step is sculpture in motion”—Alexander Calder
( A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998 p. 57).
In Alexander Calder’s mobiles form, color and motion work together, a physical expression of poetry that revolves through space. Such works express Calder’s sensory and aesthetic consciousness, as he mastered his craft to create these vibrant and expressionistic sculptures out of sheet metal and wire. Early in his career, Calder discovered that it is the line that holds the power of infinite possibilities of movement, an idea which he translated into wire. Carmen Gimenez noted, “For different reasons and by very different means… Calder brought twentieth-century sculpture to a state of transparency and weightlessness similar to the magic of levitation, inaugurating a way of conceiving space from a cosmic, aero-spatial, cosmonautic perspective” (C. Gimenez and A. S. C. Rower, Calder: Gravity and Grace, New York, 2004, p. 2).
Spanning five feet at its widest point, Quatres disques blancs (Four White Discs), is a celebration of color and form. Each colored element is attached to its own wire armature, linking the different pieces together like parts of a skeleton, moving from the four white discs indicated in the work’s title, to a solo blue, and onto Calder’s signature red. The construction emphasizes the artist’s mechanical and aesthetic capabilities, as each element, unique in itself, contributes to the overall, consciously aligned, whole of the work. In movement, each plane dances, side-by-side the panels of the work making use of the space surrounding them. They delicately twist, almost hypnotically drawing in the attention of those who observe it. Entirely at the mercy of the surrounding environment, Calder’s mobile moves as a breathing organism, designed in such a way as to respond to the currents of the surrounding air, as well as to light and human interaction with the spaces around it.
In 1930 Calder visited the studio of Piet Mondrian, an experience that proved wholly significant to the development of his practice. Calder subsequently made his first wholly abstract compositions, inventing the kinetic structure that has come to be known as the mobile, a French word referring to ‘motion’. Later, in 1943, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a retrospective of Calder’s life’s work, making Calder the youngest ever artist to whom the museum had dedicated a full-career survey exhibition. Having become one of the most innovative avant-garde artists of the century, Alexander Calder revolutionized the medium of sculpture, creating abstracted objects of unconventional beauty. He embraced the traditions of his father and grandfather, sculptors before him, however Calder moved beyond the boundaries of history and approached sculpture within a new dimension. Pure of form, color and composition, Calder’s sculptures pare away extraneous detail to simply focus on the realization of the physical form in space. The placement of each piece of the mobile is meticulously composed, resulting in a perfectly balanced work of artistic and sculptural evolution. “I have two things in mind,” he said, “I want them to be more alive, and I think about balance... The most important thing is that the mobile be able to catch the air” (A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 230).
During the 1960s Calder constructed an impressive studio which allowed for him to evolve his practice in terms of scale, free to experiment with his materials in a new way. Whilst much of the works of his later career were subsequently dedicated to large public commissions, this unique piece, Quatres disques blancs (Four White Discs), is a prime example of the artist’s confidence and skill for working with his medium. After more than 50 years of artistic investigation, this work can be seen to exemplify the culmination of Calder’s life and practice, indicative of the indelible mark that Alexander Calder has left on the history of art and in particular of sculpture. Constructed in 1972, four years before Calder died at the age of 78, Quatres disques blancs (Four White Discs), is a superb example of this master’s craft.
“Why must sculpture be static?... You look at abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect but it is always still. The next step is sculpture in motion”—Alexander Calder
( A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998 p. 57).
In Alexander Calder’s mobiles form, color and motion work together, a physical expression of poetry that revolves through space. Such works express Calder’s sensory and aesthetic consciousness, as he mastered his craft to create these vibrant and expressionistic sculptures out of sheet metal and wire. Early in his career, Calder discovered that it is the line that holds the power of infinite possibilities of movement, an idea which he translated into wire. Carmen Gimenez noted, “For different reasons and by very different means… Calder brought twentieth-century sculpture to a state of transparency and weightlessness similar to the magic of levitation, inaugurating a way of conceiving space from a cosmic, aero-spatial, cosmonautic perspective” (C. Gimenez and A. S. C. Rower, Calder: Gravity and Grace, New York, 2004, p. 2).
Spanning five feet at its widest point, Quatres disques blancs (Four White Discs), is a celebration of color and form. Each colored element is attached to its own wire armature, linking the different pieces together like parts of a skeleton, moving from the four white discs indicated in the work’s title, to a solo blue, and onto Calder’s signature red. The construction emphasizes the artist’s mechanical and aesthetic capabilities, as each element, unique in itself, contributes to the overall, consciously aligned, whole of the work. In movement, each plane dances, side-by-side the panels of the work making use of the space surrounding them. They delicately twist, almost hypnotically drawing in the attention of those who observe it. Entirely at the mercy of the surrounding environment, Calder’s mobile moves as a breathing organism, designed in such a way as to respond to the currents of the surrounding air, as well as to light and human interaction with the spaces around it.
In 1930 Calder visited the studio of Piet Mondrian, an experience that proved wholly significant to the development of his practice. Calder subsequently made his first wholly abstract compositions, inventing the kinetic structure that has come to be known as the mobile, a French word referring to ‘motion’. Later, in 1943, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a retrospective of Calder’s life’s work, making Calder the youngest ever artist to whom the museum had dedicated a full-career survey exhibition. Having become one of the most innovative avant-garde artists of the century, Alexander Calder revolutionized the medium of sculpture, creating abstracted objects of unconventional beauty. He embraced the traditions of his father and grandfather, sculptors before him, however Calder moved beyond the boundaries of history and approached sculpture within a new dimension. Pure of form, color and composition, Calder’s sculptures pare away extraneous detail to simply focus on the realization of the physical form in space. The placement of each piece of the mobile is meticulously composed, resulting in a perfectly balanced work of artistic and sculptural evolution. “I have two things in mind,” he said, “I want them to be more alive, and I think about balance... The most important thing is that the mobile be able to catch the air” (A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 230).
During the 1960s Calder constructed an impressive studio which allowed for him to evolve his practice in terms of scale, free to experiment with his materials in a new way. Whilst much of the works of his later career were subsequently dedicated to large public commissions, this unique piece, Quatres disques blancs (Four White Discs), is a prime example of the artist’s confidence and skill for working with his medium. After more than 50 years of artistic investigation, this work can be seen to exemplify the culmination of Calder’s life and practice, indicative of the indelible mark that Alexander Calder has left on the history of art and in particular of sculpture. Constructed in 1972, four years before Calder died at the age of 78, Quatres disques blancs (Four White Discs), is a superb example of this master’s craft.