Calder Foundation News

Calder’s Horizontal finds permanent home in front of Centre Pompidou

12 July 2011

Calder’s monumental standing mobile, Horizontal (1974), has been permanently installed in front of the Centre Pompidou’s iconic facade. The placement of the sculpture on the museum’s beloved plaza was determined in accordance with architect Renzo Piano. The 8-meter sculpture, which had been in storage following its last exhibition in Bonn in 1993, recently underwent extensive restoration with the collaboration of the Calder Foundation and the sponsorship of KPMG France.

Video of installation available here, courtesy of AFP.

Calder Foundation President, Alexander S.C. Rower discusses “The Power of Patronage” at Design Miami/ Basel

14 June 2011

Calder Foundation President Alexander S.C. Rower will participate in a June 14 discussion of “The Power of Patronage: Pushing Boundaries through Private Commissions” at Design Miami/ Basel with Max Lamb, Designer and Felix Burrichter, Editor/Creative Director, Pin Up. The talk will take place on 14 June at 5:30pm.

“The Power of Patronage” is part of the 2011 Design Talks program, which is geared towards an eclectic exploration of the design process. Participants include architects, artists, designers, and patrons for a diversity of insights. All talks are free and open to the public.

Calder Foundation announces 2011 Calder Prize Laureate Rachel Harrison

1 June 2011

Rachel Harrison, Zombie Rothko, 2011. Wood, polystyrene, cement, acrylic and plastic doll, 70 x 23 x 31 inches. Photo credit: John Berens. Courtesy the artist and Greene Naftali, New York.

The Calder Foundation and the Scone Foundation are pleased to announce the 2011 Calder Prize Laureate, Rachel Harrison. A work by the artist will be on view at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection during the opening week of the Venice Biennale.

The Calder Prize, in the amount of 50,000 USD, honors contemporary artists who have completed exemplary work early in their careers. In addition to the cash prize, the recipient benefits from a residency at the Atelier Calder and the placement of a signature work in a major public collection.

True to the spirit of Alexander Calder, Harrison blurs the lines between abstraction and figuration, as well as sculpture and other media, by negotiating both imagined and existing space. The Prize honors the artist’s hybrid and reference-laden use of photography, found objects, and sculptural elements to elicit highly intellectualized cognitive as well as real-time visceral responses from her viewers. Harrison’s work challenges us to reconsider the definition of sculpture, while simultaneously recontextualizing it within the history of art.

Calder Foundation featured in World of Interiors

21 April 2011

The World of Interiors, May 2011

: “Perpetual Motion,” pg. 174-175

The Calder Foundation was featured in the May 2011 issues of The World of Interiors, a publication devoted to showcasing innovative interior design. Writer Kevin Guyer chronicles the development of the Foundation and the design of its office space.

Attila Csörgö in residency at the Atelier Calder

30 March 2011

Attila Csörgö, Occurence Graphs III, 1998. Views of object stagnant and in motion. Photos: József Rosta.

Atelier Calder, Saché, France
Open Studio: 18 & 19 June 2011

The Atelier Calder is pleased to announce its Spring 2011 artist in residence, Attila Csörgö (Hungary, b. 1965). During his residency at the Atelier Calder, which lasts until July, Csörgö will continue his study of optical illusions generated by the combination of light and movement. To this end, he will conceive of a meticulous device that will combine a moving geometric structure with projected images. The placement of the projected images drastically changes and transforms the objects’ appearance. Csörgö uses art as a means to lure the viewer into the world of science. His works combine fantasy and curiosity to represent various physical and mathematical phenomena, thus creating a new perspective on a reality of which we are no longer aware.

Calder’s Portraits: A New Language, now on view at the National Portrait Gallery

30 March 2011

Frank Crowninshield, 1928. Photo: Calder Foundation

Calder’s Portraits: A New Language
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
11 March—14 August 2011

On 11 March, the National Portrait Gallery opened Calder’s Portraits: A New Language, curated by Barbara Zabel. The exhibition focuses on Calder’s portrayal of entertainment, sports, and art-world figures, including Babe Ruth and Jimmy Durante, as well as colleagues Fernand Léger and Saul Steinberg, to name a few. Calder worked in the unorthodox medium of wire, a flexible linear material, which he shaped into three-dimensional portraits of considerable character and nuance. Suspended from the wall or ceiling, the portraits are free to move; because of this mobility, they seem—like their subjects—to have a life of their own. This unprecedented exhibition features Calder’s work alongside contemporary documents, photographs and drawings. The exhibition sheds light on an often-overlooked aspect of Calder’s career, as well as on broader narratives of American culture of the twentieth century. As one critic recognized, “the longer one observes [Calder's sculpture] the more one is convinced… that here is a new language.”

Maybe I should have called it ‘My Life in Nineteen Minutes’

30 March 2011

Poster design: Damien Poulain.

On 5 March 2011, the Calder Foundation staged its first public performance event, co-sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and in collaboration with AIR, Art International Radio. Curated by Victoria Brooks with assistance from Isla Leaver-Yap, Joe Ahearn/AIR and Nicola Lees, the twelve-hour one-day event drew over 800 visitors. Taking its name from Calder’s response to Work in Progress, his 1968 theatrical production, Maybe I should have called it ‘My Life in Nineteen Minutes’ staged a contiguous series of artist film screenings, performances and music. Presented within a series of artists’ transitory sets that included installations by Calder alongside contemporary artists Phillipa Horan, Michael Fullerton and Mike Cooter, Maybe I should have called it ‘My Life in Nineteen Minutes’ utilized the intersection of performance space, cinema and gallery to present old and new experiments traversing the intervals of experience.

Calder, Black Mobile with Hole, 1954. Disrupted installation view through punctured wall. Photo: Calder Foundation.

Watch Calder’s Black Mobile with Hole in motion below:

Conservation completed on ink drawing in Calder Foundation collection

22 December 2010

(before conservation) (after conservation) Spirally Lady, 1953

The Calder Foundation commissioned the conservation of a 1953 work on paper, Spirally Lady, recently donated to the Foundation by Sandra Calder Davidson, Calder’s daughter and Trustee of the Foundation. Conservator Yana Van Dyke was able to restore the paper to close to its original color, removing and transforming all soluble acidic discoloration. The drawing is now in stable condition and ready for exhibition.

Calder Foundation withdraws work in protest from National Portrait Gallery exhibition

22 December 2010

Aztec Josephine Baker, c. 1929

On 17 December 2010, President of the Calder Foundation Alexander S. C. Rower notified the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery that the Calder Foundation will be withdrawing a work of art it had previously agreed to lend to the upcoming exhibition, “Calder’s Portraits: A New Language.” This act is in protest of the museum’s recent removal of David Wojnarowicz’s video A Fire in My Belly from “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” an act of censorship that has provoked international outrage in the art world. The Calder Foundation specifically chose to withhold Calder’s seminal work Aztec Josephine Baker from the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, because as a nude wire portrait of the celebrated African American icon, it could similarly be considered objectionable and therefore worthy of censure. It should be noted that the work will continue to be on view in the nearby National Gallery, where it has been on loan from the Calder Foundation since 1998.

Hema Upadhyay in residence at the Atelier Calder

22 December 2010

Hema Upadhyay, Where the Bees Suck, 2009

Atelier Calder, Saché, France
September 2010–January 2011

Hema Upadhyay (Indian, b. 1972) works in various media: painting, drawing, photography and installations of collected objects. Her process constitutes a sort of accounting of individual and collective experience, portraying migration and forced displacement. Upadhyay’s work frequently refers to domestic space, in which she evokes the contradictions and signs of dislocation of bodies and souls, as provoked by displacement.

During her residence at the Atelier Calder, Hema Upadhyay will undertake research for new projects that will be visually distinct from the work she has made up until the present. These works will be larger-scale installations that call upon the viewer; some will be inspired by the natural environment of Touraine, and others by those of the artist’s home.

Read Selina Ting’s interview with Hema Upadhyay in initiArt Magazine here.

Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art

22 December 2010

The Spider, 1940

Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
11 December 2010–6 March 2011

“Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art” is the first exhibition to explore Calder’s influence on a generation of contemporary artists emerging in the mid-1990s who became greatly interested in Calder’s straightforward, hands-on method of working; his emphasis on materials and on the visual and physical experience of his artworks; and his dedication to having his works speak for themselves rather than relying on context, biography or theory. More than 50 of Calder’s works are presented along with recent works by Martin Boyce, Nathan Carter, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Aaron Curry, Kristi Lippire, Jason Meadows and Jason Middlebrook, grouped to showcase the artists’ diverse methods of working, which also demonstrate various influences of the master.

Artists’ Panel: Calder and Contemporary Art
Lynne Warren, Curator, MCA, Chicago
11 December 2010, 1pm, Nasher Sculpture Center

Lecture: Calder and Contemporary Art
Jessica Holmes, Deputy Director, Calder Foundation
12 February 2011, 1pm, Nasher Sculpture Center

Calder Foundation receives donation of seminal 1927 wire sculpture

22 December 2010

Acrobats, c. 1927

The Calder Foundation is pleased to be the recipient of Acrobats, a great work from Calder’s “Blue Period.” Acrobats was donated in memory of Van Santvoord Merle-Smith, Jr., by Katherine Merle-Smith Thomas, who gave the sculpture to the Foundation after learning that it would be lent to Calder exhibitions around the world, thereby reaching the broadest audience possible. The work had been in the Merle-Smith family’s collection since they acquired it around 1930, and it bears an unusual separate wire signature attached to the sculpture’s base that the artist added years later at the family’s request.

Calder Foundation works on view in two New York City exhibitions

22 December 2010

Untitled, 1930

On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
21 November 2010–7 February 2011

“On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century” explores the radical transformation of the medium of drawing throughout the twentieth century, a period when numerous artists subjected the traditional concepts of drawing to a critical examination and expanded the medium’s definition in relation to gesture and form. In a revolutionary departure from the institutional definition of drawing, and from the reliance on paper as the fundamental support material, artists instead pushed line across the plane into real space, thus questioning the relation between the object of art and the world. “On Line” includes approximately three hundred works that connect drawing with selections of painting, sculpture, photography, film, and dance (represented by film and documentation). In this way, the exhibition makes the case for a discursive history of mark making, while mapping an alternative project of drawing in the twentieth century. The exhibition also features a work by 2007 Calder Prize laureate Zilvinas Kempinas!

Tightrope Walker, 1932

On Becoming an Artist: Isamu Noguchi and His Contemporaries, 1922–1960
The Noguchi Museum, New York
17 November 2010–24 April 2011

“On Becoming an Artist: Isamu Noguchi and His Contemporaries, 1922–1960″ explores Isamu Noguchi’s influential friendships with such seminal figures as artists Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, and Frida Kahlo; designer and inventor Buckminster Fuller; architects including Gordon Bunshaft, Louis Kahn, and Richard Neutra; and dancers and choreographers Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins, and Merce Cunningham. These relationships are brought to vivid life through artwork, letters, photographs, and historic exhibition invitations and catalogues, providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the art world at critical moments during the twentieth century.

New York Times reports, “Paris Court Orders Sculptures Returned to Calder Estate”

2 December 2010

In today’s edition of The New York Times, Arts Beat reporter Carol Vogel details the the decision of the Paris Court of Appeals in a dispute between long-time Calder dealer, Aimé Maeght, and the Calder Estate. Vogel writes that the Court ordered the Maeght Estate “to return seven sculptures to the artist’s estate. The works, which include include a variety of mobiles and stabiles made between 1941 and 1970, are worth about $6.25 million, according to Alexander S. C. Rower, a grandson of the artist and president of the Calder Foundation.”

The full text of article can be accessed here.

Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art

15 July 2010

Little Face, c. 1945.

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
26 June – 17 October 2010

“Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art” is the first exhibition to explore Calder’s influence on the generation of contemporary artists emerging in the mid-1990s. This generation of international artists became greatly interested in Calder’s straightforward, hands-on method of working; his emphasis on materials and on the visual and physical experience of his artworks; and his dedication to having his works speak for themselves rather than relying on context, biography or theory. More than 50 of Calder’s works are presented along with recent works by Martin Boyce, Nathan Carter, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Aaron Curry, Kristi Lippire, Jason Meadows and Jason Middlebrook, grouped to showcase the artists’ diverse methods of working, which also demonstrate various influences of the master.

Listen to the panel: Calder and Contemporary Art: Using the Familiar. How do artists see the familiar a new, and how can viewers do the same? In this opening conversation, MCA Curator Lynne Warren engages artists Jason Meadows and Jason Middlebrook, and Calder Foundation Deputy Director Jessica Holmes in a discussion about creative reuse in sculpture, relating contemporary methods of art making to Calder’s process and work.

Calder to Warhol: Introducing the Fisher Collection

15 July 2010

Eighteen Numbered Black, 1953.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
25 June – 19 September 2010

This past February, SFMOMA announced an unprecedented partnership to house and display the collection of Gap founders Doris and Donald Fisher — more than 1,100 works by iconic 20th century artists — in a new museum expansion. “Calder to Warhol” provides a glimpse into SFMOMA’s future. This sweeping exhibition showcases the quality of the Fisher Collection, featuring more than 160 paintings, sculptures, photographs and video works by Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Anselm Kiefer, Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and many more.

Le Guichet at Brooklyn Botanic Garden

15 July 2010

Le Guichet, 1963. Photo: Elizabeth Peters/BBG.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Osborne Garden, Brooklyn, NY
June – September 2010

Calder’s Le Guichet will be on view at Brooklyn Botanic Garden from 4 June through the end of summer. Earlier this year, Lincoln Center paid tribute to Mayor Bloomberg at its annual spring gala by offering to move the work by Calder to any place in New York City of his choosing for 90 days. Le Guichet was created by Alexander Calder in 1963 and presented to Lincoln Center in 1965 as a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Lipman. The sculpture normally straddles the Center’s north plaza, balancing on four arched legs that create a series of archways through which viewers can pass. Bloomberg stated: “Brooklyn Botanic Garden is one of New York City’s most beautiful settings, and as it celebrates its 100th year, Le Guichet will make it an even more special place to visit this summer.”

Calder: Capturing Movement Conference to be held at University of Virginia

1 April 2010

Calder: Capturing Movement
A conference exploring art, science, and innovation through the work of Alexander Calder.

8 & 9 April 2010
University of Virginia

On the occasion of the loan of an Alexander Calder mobile and a monumental sculpture from the Calder Foundation in New York City, the University of Virginia will host a trans-disciplinary conference celebrating the transformative inventions of the unique and accomplished 20th-century artist.

“Alexander Calder: Capturing Movement” will be held April 8 and 9 in Campbell Hall, Room 153, and at the U.Va. Art Museum. The conference is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts and the U.Va. Art Museum.

Calder’s use of motion, intervention, variable composition, performance and chance in his work, as well as the artist’s background in engineering and understanding of space and energy, provide the inspiration for a conference examining art, science and innovation.

“Calder’s composition of movement matches the velocity of the modern world and attunes us to the contingency of change. As a result, he is a most appropriate starting point for contemporary discussions,” said Elizabeth Turner, U.Va.’s vice provost for the arts.

“The conference recognizes the commonality of creativity in science and the arts and the intersection of the two disciplines,” said Thomas Skalak, U.Va.’s vice president for research.

Alexander Calder at Gagosian Gallery, West 21st Street, NYC

26 February 2010

26 February- 10 April, 2010

Video: Trebuchet Interactive. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.