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Sculptor, artist and creative thinker, Alexander Calder is known for delicate wire sculptures that turn around in space. Here the Calder expert Mark Rosenthal talks more about the creator's lesser-known circus and jewelry.
Alexander Calder's fine wire sculptures have been described as "drawings in space." As the Calder expert Mark Rosenthal explains, the American artist was addicted to making art, including his Calder Circus and unique pieces of jewelry.
Alexander Calder's graceful sculptures are like lines in motion. Yet the pure poetry in his work belies the enormous amount of time that went into hammering each singular piece that forms part of one of these sculptural compositions.
Calder's love for sculpture was genetic. Born in 1898 in Philadelphia, he came from a family of artists. Both his father and grandfather were well-known sculptors, and his mother was a painter. After studying engineering, he switched to art and soon after his first one-man show in New York he moved to Paris. Influenced by the Surrealists, Calder created his miniature circus, called "Cirque Calder," in Paris from 1926-1931 and gave several performances in the city before presenting the circus in Berlin. His humorous circus troop of 200 figurines, including acrobats, jugglers and soldiers, was made from pieces of wire, cork, wood, cloth and other found materials. An exhibition about Calder's circus and his years in Paris, titled "Alexander Calder, Les Années Parisiennes", opens at the Centre Pompidou in Paris next March. The liveliness of the circus echoes how his sculptures, often called "mobiles," come alive in the air thanks to their changing, moving quality.
Alongside his sculptures, Calder made over 1,500 pieces of jewelry, harking back to his childhood when he made pieces for his sisters' dolls. Made from gold, silver, bronze and steel wire, brass, leather, ebony and bone, these unique pieces – some of which are inspired by African tribal art – can transform the appearance of the wearer and are wearable works of art.
Calder's multidisciplinary approach broke down the previously established boundaries between art, performance and jewelry, revealing Calder to be a complex and visionary artist.
In this exclusive interview, Mark Rosenthal, a curator of contemporary art at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach in Florida, discusses the personality of Calder's art, circus and jewelry. Rosenthal has co-curated the traveling exhibition "Calder's Jewelry" and curated the previous exhibition "The Surreal Calder" and is the author of these titles.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is renowned for expressing lightness, air, motion and gracefulness in his work. How did this develop?
It developed in a fascinating way, first through his education. He trained as an engineer and his whole background was about making toys and machinery. He had a real sense of how things like machines operated and created a different kind of form based on parts in motion and movement. This was a departure from the background of his father and grandfather, who were classical sculptors. It also has to do with how his sculptures have a profound relationship with drawing in space and the same sort of lightness as a line drawn in ink. It's a unique achievement and has nothing to do with anything else [in the history of art].
Jean-Paul Sartre spoke about the lightness in Calder's work and how it gave life because it could move. It reminds us that we are on a large, physical mass that is spinning in relation to the sun. Calder wasn't interested in light being solid but in a moveable mass. He wanted his work to have that dynamism and sense of moving. Even with the mobiles, there's this lightness about them and you can read the forms in more than one way. They're biomorphic forms that are ever-changing, illusive and not fixed. They reflect the impact of Surrealism.
Calder made his first toys when he was a boy. As an adult, what do you think prompted him to dedicate so much time to making his circus?
He had a keen eye; he observed things in the world and thought about translating those things, such as the circus, into art. He wasn't doctrinaire about being abstract or figurative; he was an independent, free spirit who was unafraid of doing unorthodox things like the circus or his jewelry. Just consider how he enjoyed the freedom of doing all those performances; a lot of artists would have feared that they wouldn't be taken seriously as a sculptor if they did that. It always seems that he had a "devil may care" attitude.
How did it happen that Calder performed his circus in Berlin, and how significant was this?
It was all an accident. He'd been performing with his circus in Paris and became famous for doing it, and then somebody invited him to go to Berlin. I found it an amazing coincidence that it was outside Paris, and in Holland and Germany, that artists were thinking more and more about developing their work in different media. There was the Bauhaus movement in Germany, Constructivism in Russia and the De Stijl movement in Holland. Those movements were saying that artists could make cups and saucers, and were seeing art as being linked to design. So it's a fascinating coincidence that Calder was making jewelry after he'd left Paris. It makes me wonder whether he found Germany more conducive to feeling free about being an artist who makes more than just painting and sculpture.
In the films about Calder and his circus, he comes across as a generous-hearted, fun-loving man. Do you think this is an accurate portrayal of his personality?
People who knew him thought this was overstated in the films but, yes, he did have a kind of joie de vivre, for sure. Between those two views is the truth. No one ever describes Calder as stoic or dour. And he wasn't spending his life pretending to be Charlie Chaplin although I think that sometimes the films make him into that.
His work has a kind of joie de vivre because of the impression that it is created by lightness. There's the physical lightness, and the fact that some of it moves, and the metaphysical lightness that has a kind of changeability. His work is deceptive; one doesn't quickly realize its complexity and how this is very rich and highly developed. But I think we have seen too many children's toys that are like the mobiles and don't study their composition carefully enough. Each work of art by Calder, whether it's a sculpture, a drawing or a piece of jewelry, is a composition, an arrangement of parts. The best artists make the best compositions because it's the success of a composition that inspires the viewer to be excited by the work.
How would you describe Calder's outlook towards his work?
He had a kind of humble outlook and was the kind of artist who simply loved to make art. When you see a picture of him working away at his workbench, well, that's all he did seven days a week. When somebody like you or me would visit him in his studio, he'd talk for a few minutes and then he'd want to get rid of you, no matter how generous he was, because all he wanted was to work. One of the things that I learned doing this show is that he would take pieces of wire in brass or steel and hammer them. Every object is hammered from wire, which is an astounding thing to know. It means that for an enormous piece of jewelry he'd have needed to hammer all those wires to create the form. Calder had a strong knowledge about the strength of materials. If you start hammering a piece of metal, you're liable to break it and need to know at which point to stop.
Your exhibition on Calder's jewelry spotlights one of the lesser-known aspects of Calder's work. How difficult was it to bring together the 300 bracelets, brooches, necklaces and rings on display?
I was very lucky. The Calder Foundation inherited a great number of works directly from his family and continues to buy his works when they become available. Once you have confidence from the foundation it makes it much easier. Perhaps 70 percent of the exhibition came from that one source. Some of the other pieces have come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is a partner in the exhibition.
What was the biggest challenge in conceiving the show?
If there is a challenge in putting on this show, it's introducing an audience that thinks it knows Calder's work to an aspect that they don't know or that they consider less important than the rest of it. When people saw the exhibition they were shocked, saying they had no idea that Calder's jewelry was so ambitious and extravagant, and such a major part of his work. Jane Adlin, who wrote an essay in the book's introduction, says Calder's jewelry has influenced more jewelry makers than any other person in the twentieth century. When you compare Calder's jewelry to his sculpture, it's obvious that it was an important activity for him and not just a sideline.
How does Calder's jewelry relate to the rest of his work as another form of artistic expression?
Calder's work is about drawing in space and has that airy, linear quality whether it's about sculpture or jewelry. To me, one of the most amazing things about his jewelry is how it transforms the wearer. Most women buy jewelry that complements them and what they're wearing. But Calder's jewelry demands greater attention and becomes a performance work of art. That's also true of Surrealism, the idea of being in costume and the importance of transformation. Wearing a piece of Calder's jewelry is to participate in a Surrealist manifestation; you're going to be transformed.
Do the themes in Calder's jewelry echo the themes that he was exploring in his sculptures?
Yes, he was always going back and forth, doing both activities simultaneously. He did a series of works called "Constellations" in which he used ebony and other types of wood, and he used the same materials in his jewelry at the same time. In his very first exhibition he showed his sculptures and jewelry together, which would have been a very unorthodox thing to do. I doubt that Picasso showed his pottery with his painting.
Which do you consider to be the most iconic pieces of Calder's jewelry?
One of the most popular pieces in the show is "The Jealous Husband." It's one of the few that has a title. Everybody is wondering what it might refer to; nobody knows if there is a personal meaning there. Another popular interpretation is that the bigness of the necklace keeps away any potential suitor, almost like a chastity belt. Another very striking piece that lots of people are talking about is the "Tiara," because it's so big, dramatic and unbelievably light.
Do you also have a favorite mobile by Calder?
It would be the "Spider", which appears on the cover on another book that I wrote about Calder called "The Surreal Calder." http://www.amazon.com/Surreal-Calder-Mark-Rosenthal/dp/0300114362
I guess the vividness and life-likeness of this mobile really stand out, and the fact that it's moving, so each time I look at it it's different. It's like returning to an old friend who has a new interest that you didn't know about and who is always changing.
If you created an imaginary museum, what would you put inside?
I would start with a work by Arshile Gorky called "The Liver Is The Cock's Comb" (1994) and the "Spider" by Alexander Calder. Then Matisse's "La Joie de Vivre," de Kooning's "Gotham News" and a work by William Kentridge. I'm doing a big show on Kentridge, and I would add his newest work, which is called "I Am Not Me, the Horse is Not Mine."
Definition of luxury:
In the popular imagination, luxury seems to be precious objects and precious experiences. For me, it takes on more of a metaphorical context. It has to do with feeling good and good feelings. Last night my daughter-in-law gave birth to a baby girl, and being with her in hospital and holding the baby was a luxurious feeling for me. It's my first grandchild.
I don't want to believe that luxury is always about objects. If I did, I would constantly be jealous. Luxury is having a good marriage, a grandchild and good experiences. As one gets older, one realizes that these are the luxuries and not just having a Rolex watch or a luxurious pen. And I've learned this over and over again in life. But I don't normally think about these things.
A moment:
Holding my granddaughter, Jane.
A place:
In the ocean, swimming and floating in the ocean. It doesn't matter where.
An object:
I would say there are many objects but one I've been looking at recently is a painting by Arshile Gorky called "The Liver Is The Cock's Comb" (1994). It's so fantastically complicated and rich, and an experience to look at.
A person:
My wife, Laura, to whom the same description could apply.
BUY ONLINE:
http://www.amazon.com/Surreal-Calder-Mark-Rosenthal/dp/0300114362
http://www.amazon.com/Calder-Jewelry-Mark-Rosenthal/dp/0300134282/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215173915&sr=1-1
http://www.filmsduparadoxe.com/calder.html
WATCH ONLINE:
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MORE INFO:
"Calder Jewelry" is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from July 12 through November 2, 2008. http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/309.html
The exhibition will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) in New York from December 8, 2008 through March 1, 2009, and then at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (www.modernart.ie) from March 31 through June 22, 2009.
"Alexander Calder, Les Années Parisiennes" is at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from March 18 through July 20, 2009. www.cnac-gp.fr