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拍品专文
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A02112.
“How does art come into being?” Calder once asked earlier in his career, before answering, “Out of volumes, motion, spaces carved out within the surrounding space, the universe.” (A. Calder, 'Comment raliser l'art?', Abstraction, Cration, Art Non-Figuratif, No. 1, 1932, p. 6). As an engineer, poet and artist, Calder had a profound interest in the elements at play in our universe, such as movement, natural forms and color. Through sculpture, Calder sought to redefine the nature of art by taking it off the pedestal and breathing movement into its static form. Best-known for his use of bold geometric forms, kinetic orchestration and animated movement, Calder was always careful to create works that offered the possibility of dynamic energy without being prescriptive about how they should move. In fact, rarely used in fine art before, Calder’s adoption of industrial metal in his sculptures and mobiles is particularly notable among his many artistic achievements. Conjuring movement through the simple turns and twists of wire and metal, Calder’s mobiles unfold before the viewer as if constantly seen for the very first time, becoming rigorous and classical investigations into not only form and color, but also time and space.
London was executed in 1962 in for Calder’s major retrospective, Alexander Calder: Sculpture-Mobiles, at the Tate Gallery, London that same year. By 1962, Calder’s large studio in Saché was finally completed and his attention had become increasingly focused on his monumental sculpture commissions, especially as the postwar building boom continued to create a high demand for public art. However, at the height of his international acclaim, Calder never lost the lively ingenuity that inspired his earliest mobiles. In his later work, Calder continued to interrogate materials and himself in his quest to discover their infinite possibilities.
Formed by a cascade of red elements, London is suspended by a single wire. Both delicate in its construction, yet powerful with its vibrant red forms that seamlessly slice through space, London becomes the perfect balance of weight and weightlessness. There is also a certain drama in the way each unique element is balanced and aligned on a thin wire, never touching, even as they move, and each equally important in their suspended performance. At the top, five red elements hang vertically with another five horizontal elements reaching towards the ground – a symmetry in number, like fingers reaching out or a realization of the perfect symmetry, yet randomness inherent in nature.
By selecting a single primary color, red in this instance and the artist’s most beloved color, Calder focuses on the purity of form and its relation to material and space. For Calder, color was not a representational force, but rather an emotional one, in much the same way as the historical pioneers in non-traditional use of color, such as Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. As Calder himself once exclaimed: “I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red….I often wish that I’d been a fauve in 1905.” (A. Calder, quoted in H. H. Arnason and U. Mulas, Calder, London, 1971, p. 69). Calder’s bold use of color combined with the sensation of movement produced some of the most visually spectacular and important works of the twenty-first century.
In the midst of the Cold War, Calder’s artwork maintained a certain hopefulness and spontaneity. A push or a gust of wind will set its carefully balanced elements in motion, introducing the magical element of chance and movement that make Calder's sculptures so fascinating. To Calder, the creative experience was an experience of joy, especially in his exploration and harnessing of the natural forces at play. This interest in science and mathematics might seem opposed at first to the more romantic associations of poetry, but, in fact, the two interests were intricately linked for Calder. “He grasped the inextricable relationship between immediate appearances and the hidden forces that shape our world…Calder, although not a scientist in any traditional sense, was moved by a desire, common among early 20th century thinkers, to see the poetry of everyday life as shaped by heretofore invisible principles and laws” (J. Perl, “Sensibility and Science,” in Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013, p. 41).
“How does art come into being?” Calder once asked earlier in his career, before answering, “Out of volumes, motion, spaces carved out within the surrounding space, the universe.” (A. Calder, 'Comment raliser l'art?', Abstraction, Cration, Art Non-Figuratif, No. 1, 1932, p. 6). As an engineer, poet and artist, Calder had a profound interest in the elements at play in our universe, such as movement, natural forms and color. Through sculpture, Calder sought to redefine the nature of art by taking it off the pedestal and breathing movement into its static form. Best-known for his use of bold geometric forms, kinetic orchestration and animated movement, Calder was always careful to create works that offered the possibility of dynamic energy without being prescriptive about how they should move. In fact, rarely used in fine art before, Calder’s adoption of industrial metal in his sculptures and mobiles is particularly notable among his many artistic achievements. Conjuring movement through the simple turns and twists of wire and metal, Calder’s mobiles unfold before the viewer as if constantly seen for the very first time, becoming rigorous and classical investigations into not only form and color, but also time and space.
London was executed in 1962 in for Calder’s major retrospective, Alexander Calder: Sculpture-Mobiles, at the Tate Gallery, London that same year. By 1962, Calder’s large studio in Saché was finally completed and his attention had become increasingly focused on his monumental sculpture commissions, especially as the postwar building boom continued to create a high demand for public art. However, at the height of his international acclaim, Calder never lost the lively ingenuity that inspired his earliest mobiles. In his later work, Calder continued to interrogate materials and himself in his quest to discover their infinite possibilities.
Formed by a cascade of red elements, London is suspended by a single wire. Both delicate in its construction, yet powerful with its vibrant red forms that seamlessly slice through space, London becomes the perfect balance of weight and weightlessness. There is also a certain drama in the way each unique element is balanced and aligned on a thin wire, never touching, even as they move, and each equally important in their suspended performance. At the top, five red elements hang vertically with another five horizontal elements reaching towards the ground – a symmetry in number, like fingers reaching out or a realization of the perfect symmetry, yet randomness inherent in nature.
By selecting a single primary color, red in this instance and the artist’s most beloved color, Calder focuses on the purity of form and its relation to material and space. For Calder, color was not a representational force, but rather an emotional one, in much the same way as the historical pioneers in non-traditional use of color, such as Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. As Calder himself once exclaimed: “I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red….I often wish that I’d been a fauve in 1905.” (A. Calder, quoted in H. H. Arnason and U. Mulas, Calder, London, 1971, p. 69). Calder’s bold use of color combined with the sensation of movement produced some of the most visually spectacular and important works of the twenty-first century.
In the midst of the Cold War, Calder’s artwork maintained a certain hopefulness and spontaneity. A push or a gust of wind will set its carefully balanced elements in motion, introducing the magical element of chance and movement that make Calder's sculptures so fascinating. To Calder, the creative experience was an experience of joy, especially in his exploration and harnessing of the natural forces at play. This interest in science and mathematics might seem opposed at first to the more romantic associations of poetry, but, in fact, the two interests were intricately linked for Calder. “He grasped the inextricable relationship between immediate appearances and the hidden forces that shape our world…Calder, although not a scientist in any traditional sense, was moved by a desire, common among early 20th century thinkers, to see the poetry of everyday life as shaped by heretofore invisible principles and laws” (J. Perl, “Sensibility and Science,” in Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013, p. 41).