拍品专文
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A24997.
Standing elegantly en pointe, like a graceful ballerina, Untitled, is testament to Calder's skill as both an engineer and an artist. It's soaring; pointed core combines with delicate butterfly-like wings to produce a work which is inherently beautiful and also remarkably complex.
With its unusual mixture of color, angular planes and graceful biomorphic shapes, this work is a superlative example of an effect that was particularly favored by Calder during this stage in his career. As part of his attempt to redefine the medium of sculpture he wanted to dispel the traditional idea that sculpture had to be a coherent collection of elements which fitted together in a consistent way. "Disparity in form, color, size, weight, motion, is what makes a composition... It is the apparent accident to regularity which the artist actually controls by which makes or mars a work" (Alexander Calder quoted by J. Davidson, ed., Calder, an Autobiography with Pictures, New York, 1966, p. 130).
This work is one of Alexander Calder's celebrated Standing Mobiles. In these works, Calder introduced a sense of genuine movement to the art works of his age, revolutionizing notions of what sculpture and painting could be. Originally inspired by a visit to Piet Mondrian's studio during the 1930s, when he had been struck by the visual intensity of the rectangles of color on the walls, Calder decided that those forms would look even better in motion. Within a short time, Calder had brought some of the playfulness with which he had created his sprawling Circus to a new abstract art-form.
Standing elegantly en pointe, like a graceful ballerina, Untitled, is testament to Calder's skill as both an engineer and an artist. It's soaring; pointed core combines with delicate butterfly-like wings to produce a work which is inherently beautiful and also remarkably complex.
With its unusual mixture of color, angular planes and graceful biomorphic shapes, this work is a superlative example of an effect that was particularly favored by Calder during this stage in his career. As part of his attempt to redefine the medium of sculpture he wanted to dispel the traditional idea that sculpture had to be a coherent collection of elements which fitted together in a consistent way. "Disparity in form, color, size, weight, motion, is what makes a composition... It is the apparent accident to regularity which the artist actually controls by which makes or mars a work" (Alexander Calder quoted by J. Davidson, ed., Calder, an Autobiography with Pictures, New York, 1966, p. 130).
This work is one of Alexander Calder's celebrated Standing Mobiles. In these works, Calder introduced a sense of genuine movement to the art works of his age, revolutionizing notions of what sculpture and painting could be. Originally inspired by a visit to Piet Mondrian's studio during the 1930s, when he had been struck by the visual intensity of the rectangles of color on the walls, Calder decided that those forms would look even better in motion. Within a short time, Calder had brought some of the playfulness with which he had created his sprawling Circus to a new abstract art-form.