In 1926, Alexander Calder (1898-1976) moved from New York to Paris and began to use time and motion as "materials" for animating line and space. Calder’s years in Paris - an understudied part of the artist’s career - is the focus of this marvelous publication.
A team of international scholars discusses Calder’s many innovations of this period, chief among them his abstract, motorized, and mobile works. They analyze the extended cast of Calder’s animated Circus, made in Paris between 1926 and 1931, and include previously unpublished photographs by Brassaï and Kertesz of Calder and this beloved performative sculpture. The essays critically explore the intellectual, cultural, and artistic milieu of Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the contexts of Calder’s friendships with Miró, Mondrian, Duchamp, and Man Ray, among others. What emerges in this fascinating book is a nuanced and detailed understanding of how Calder’s distinctive career first took flight.
Written by Joan Simon and Brigitte Leal
With contributions from Henry Petroski, Quentin Bajac, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Eleonora Nagy, Pepe Karmel, Annie Cohen-Solal, Arnauld Pierre, and Alexander S. C. Rower
Paper over board cover, 304 pages, 87 b/w + 235 color illustrations, 9 3/4 x 11ins
Published by Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300126228