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拍品专文
A pivotal figure in twentieth-century art, Alexander Calder’s dynamic oeuvre established a conceptual bridge between the American and European avant-gardes while simultaneously reinventing and questioning the traditions of the sculptural mode. Untitled is a masterful illustration of the artist’s deft hand and incredible ability to render lyrical, poetic forms from flat color and simple materials. Calder was one of the first American artists to be influenced by Constructivism, and its concentration on pure color and shape combine within his oeuvre with forms derived from Surrealist imagery. Enraptured by the new ideas coming out of Europe, he ingratiated himself into the scene and eventually became part of the conversation in an ever-evolving modern 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. We sometimes forget that the intimate relationship between science and alchemy and magic of all kinds, taken for granted in early modern times, was still very much a factor around the turn of the century” (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). Introduced to revolutionary artists like Joan Miró and Paul Klee, Calder’s time in Europe lit an imaginative fire within the young artist which continued to drive him for the remainder of his career.
Elegantly suspended from a single point, two discrete sections branch from a curving yellow wire. On one side, three white circles sprout upward like seed pods while four amorphous black shapes swing gently below on a series of cascading arcs. Opposite this duochromatic construction a grouping of five red shapes and one orange triangle spin at an angle attached to lengths of red-orange wire. Growing straight upward from this fiery sextet, a blue circle with an off-center hole floats above the entire mobile like a distant moon or watchful eye. Calder’s use of color was extremely sincere as he used specific hues to categorize different elements and to draw the viewer’s attention in various directions. “I want things to be differentiated,” he mused. “Black and white are first—then red is next—and then I get sort of vague. It’s really just for differentiation, but 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, Calder, London, 2004, p. 89). Calder melded color with material into singular forms; exhibiting a skill for creating visual balance in three dimensions, the artist used color to create movement even when the air was still.
In 1926, Calder began to visit Paris regularly where he established lasting connections with key figures in the European avant-garde. Especially taken by a 1930 visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio, it was then that the artist began experimenting with abstract constructions and laid the foundation for his groundbreaking kinetic art practice. Growing out of Mondrian’s ideas about Neo-plasticism and its focus on the reinvention of painting and sculpture, Calder mused, “Therefore, why not plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translatory or rotary motion but several motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing to make a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions” (A. Calder, Modern Painting and Sculpture, exh. cat., Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, 1933). While still focusing on shape, color, and line, his new mobiles introduced movement and time to the picture plane as they became viewable in three dimensions.
The 1950s were an especially productive time for Calder, and it was then that he began producing more refined mobiles and their stationary counterparts, the stabiles, while continuing to travel between the United States and Europe. Artists like Marcel Duchamp were especially interested in Calder’s harnessing of kinetic form, noting in a 1950 article that, “The art of Calder is the sublimation of a tree in the wind” (M. Duchamp, entry on Calder for the Société Anonyme catalogue (1950), reprinted in M. Duchamp, Duchamp du Signe, Paris 1975, p. 196). The subversive French artist went on to coin the term ‘mobiles’ to describe works like Untitled. His reference to the natural world fits within Calder’s own ideas about his constructions as they often alluded to, but never depicted, animals and natural forms as in the monumental Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939) housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While ferrying new ideas back and forth across the Atlantic as he worked tirelessly in his studios, Calder’s revelations about abstraction in motion inspired countless artists to break from tradition and explore the intersection between art and life.
Elegantly suspended from a single point, two discrete sections branch from a curving yellow wire. On one side, three white circles sprout upward like seed pods while four amorphous black shapes swing gently below on a series of cascading arcs. Opposite this duochromatic construction a grouping of five red shapes and one orange triangle spin at an angle attached to lengths of red-orange wire. Growing straight upward from this fiery sextet, a blue circle with an off-center hole floats above the entire mobile like a distant moon or watchful eye. Calder’s use of color was extremely sincere as he used specific hues to categorize different elements and to draw the viewer’s attention in various directions. “I want things to be differentiated,” he mused. “Black and white are first—then red is next—and then I get sort of vague. It’s really just for differentiation, but 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, Calder, London, 2004, p. 89). Calder melded color with material into singular forms; exhibiting a skill for creating visual balance in three dimensions, the artist used color to create movement even when the air was still.
In 1926, Calder began to visit Paris regularly where he established lasting connections with key figures in the European avant-garde. Especially taken by a 1930 visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio, it was then that the artist began experimenting with abstract constructions and laid the foundation for his groundbreaking kinetic art practice. Growing out of Mondrian’s ideas about Neo-plasticism and its focus on the reinvention of painting and sculpture, Calder mused, “Therefore, why not plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translatory or rotary motion but several motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing to make a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions” (A. Calder, Modern Painting and Sculpture, exh. cat., Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, 1933). While still focusing on shape, color, and line, his new mobiles introduced movement and time to the picture plane as they became viewable in three dimensions.
The 1950s were an especially productive time for Calder, and it was then that he began producing more refined mobiles and their stationary counterparts, the stabiles, while continuing to travel between the United States and Europe. Artists like Marcel Duchamp were especially interested in Calder’s harnessing of kinetic form, noting in a 1950 article that, “The art of Calder is the sublimation of a tree in the wind” (M. Duchamp, entry on Calder for the Société Anonyme catalogue (1950), reprinted in M. Duchamp, Duchamp du Signe, Paris 1975, p. 196). The subversive French artist went on to coin the term ‘mobiles’ to describe works like Untitled. His reference to the natural world fits within Calder’s own ideas about his constructions as they often alluded to, but never depicted, animals and natural forms as in the monumental Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939) housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While ferrying new ideas back and forth across the Atlantic as he worked tirelessly in his studios, Calder’s revelations about abstraction in motion inspired countless artists to break from tradition and explore the intersection between art and life.