Beschreibung:

Alexander Calder The Whiffletree circa 1936 standing mobile, painted sheet metal and wire overall: 80 x 52 x 42 in. (203.2 x 132 x 106.7 cm) Initialed with monogram “CA” on the largest red element.
Provenance Perls Galleries, New York Dayton’s Gallery 12, Minneapolis B.C. Holland, Inc., Chicago Sale: New York, Christie’s, New York, Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, November 13, 2007, lot 46 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited New Orleans, The Arts and Crafts Club of Louisiana, Alexander Calder Mobiles/Jewelry and Fernand Léger Gouaches/Drawing, March 28 – April 11, 1941 Minneapolis, Dayton’s Gallery 12, Calder, April 17 – May 11, 1968 London, Gimpel Fils, Alexander Calder Large Standing Mobiles, February 18 – March 15, 1969 Literature Dayton’s Gallery 12, Calder, Minneapolis, 1968 p. 2 (illustrated) Gimpel Fils, Alexander Calder Standing Mobiles, New York, 1969, n.p. (illustrated) Catalogue Essay I feel an artist should go about his work simply with great respect for his materials…sculptors of all places and climates have used what came ready at hand. They did not search for exotic and precious materials. It was their knowledge and invention which gave value to the result of their labors. ALEXANDER CALDER (Alexander Calder 1943, “Alexander Calder”, Calder Foundation, New York, 1943 taken from Simplicity of Means: Calder and the Devised Object, New York, 2007). Early on in the career of Alexander Calder’s career, before he began to compose some of the most recognizable sculptures of the Twentieth Century, he carried in his suitcase a miniature, functional model of a circus, which he dubbed Cirque Calder. During his years in France (the late 1920s and early 1930s), this particular piece become well-known among the ranks of avant-garde artists in Paris, its many balanced intricacies yet sublimely playful nature a wonderful piece of amusement, and—for many—an awe-inspiring piece of structural engineering. Soon Calder transformed this kind of compact genius into sculptural wonders of great size and similar brilliance in their engineering feats of balance.The Whiffletree, 1936, is from the earliest era of Calder’s freestanding sculptures. As such, it is one of the first works to embody the fully realized talent of one of the most seminal artists of the twentieth century. Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Calder’s earliest profession was perhaps an effort against the fate that he seemed so pointedly prescribed. Both his father and grandfather were renowned sculptors, having made art for both public and private commission. Yet his mother, as a painter, dealt with two dimensions that his paternal line lacked in their sculpture: both color and a playful sense of illusion. In the circus, he found these many disparate elements engaged in an elegant dance: flashes of colors floated through space as three dimensional objects, alight with both joy and humor. Eventually abandoning mechanical engineering as a profession, he traveled to Paris, finding the process of toy-making an adventure in both design and psychology: he could create a functional childhood pastime while simultaneously making an object that adults could appreciate for its aesthetic value. Additionally, his interests brought him into another realm of art that was a training ground for emerging art of sculpture. Enmeshed in and fascinated by dance in 1920s and 1930’s Paris, Calder designed sets for seminal choreographer Martha Graham and composer Eric Satie. In turn, this joy of movement came to saturate each of his nascent sculptural designs; Calder chose to imbue each of his creations with a spirit of movement and a future of motion. Calder’s early plans for his Mechanical Ballet (an early unrealized project of immense proportions) reveal the sense of life that he desired to bequeath his artistic subjects: “Calder allowed his true ambition for theatrical productions to emerge: he wanted to dispense with any action on stage other than that of his animated forms, which would then no longer merely serve as decorative sets or props. Rather, he wanted the presence of his work to replace every other presence, especially live acto