Alexander Calder (1898-1976). Triangles and Arches (maquette), 1965. Sheet metal and paint. 20 x 30-3/4 x 21 inches (50....

Description

Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Triangles and Arches (maquette), 1965
Sheet metal and paint
20 x 30-3/4 x 21 inches (50.8 x 78.1 x 53.3 cm)
Incised with monogram on side edge: CA

PROVENANCE:
Estate of the artist;
The Pace Gallery, New York;
Collection of Sheldon Berlow, Buffalo, New York;
James Goodman Gallery, New York;
Dr. Marvin and Mrs. Natalie Gleidman, acquired from the above, 1988;
Christie's, New York, December 3, 2020, lot 280;
Helly Nahmad Gallery, New York, 2020;
Private collection, acquired from the above.

EXHIBITED:
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, "Calder's Universe," October 14, 1976-February 6, 1977;
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York, "Calder and Miró," June 7-September 13, 1998.

LITERATURE:
H. Arnason & U. Mulas, Calder, New York, 1971, pp. 66-67, illustrated;
Whitney Museum of American Art, Calder's Universe, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1977, p. 319, illustrated (monumental version);
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Alexander Calder: 1898-1976, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1996, p. 189, illustrated;
Nassau County Museum of Art, Calder and Miró, exhibition catalogue, Roslyn Harbor, New York, 1998, p. 18, illustrated;
U. Mulas, et al., Ugo Mulas/Alexander Calder, Milan, 2008, pp. 12-13, illustrated;
C. Larroche, Calder: Le Magicien des Aires, Paris, 2008, p. 29, illustrated;
Château de Tours, Alexander Calder en Touraine, exhibition catalogue, Tours, 2008, p. 120, illustrated;
Centre Pompidou, Calder: Les Années Parisiennes au Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009, p. 43, illustrated;
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Calder: Sculptor of Air, exhibition catalogue, Rome, 2009, p. 214, illustrated.

NOTE:
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under no. A00406. This sculpture is located in our New York office; the buyer will be responsible for making pickup or shipping arrangements from this location.

The world knows Alexander Calder for the mobile, a radical departure from traditional sculpture that released the medium from the gravity of the pedestal, set it free. This first practice is unquestionably his most famous, yet Calder himself ultimately viewed it as a precursor to his second major body of work, his opus, the stabile. "There has been an aggrandizement in my work. It's true that I've more or less retired from the mobiles. I regard them as just fiddling. The engineering on the big objects is important" (Calder as quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exhibition catalogue, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 281). Monumental static works, the stabiles required significant planning prior to execution. Enter: the maquette. Traditionally considered humble preparatory materials, maquettes, in Calder's view, were worthy creations in and of themselves, each one a standalone sculpture.

Maquettes allowed Calder to apply to the freedom that he enjoyed with his mobiles to this new and more structurally difficult medium. Static, monumental sculptures necessitate a markedly different approach than lightweight mobiles, especially in their construction and balance, and even more so when the artist aims to retain the same airy and vaguely organic composition across such disparate media. Built from lighter, more easily workable materials, the maquettes permitted unbridled experimentation and allowed Calder to call upon his educational background as a mechanical engineer once more.

The dynamic forms are given astonishing lightness via several hallmarks visible in the present work. The aptly titled Triangles and Arches, whose sweeping forms recall spires and buttresses of the great Gothic cathedrals, marvels of engineering themselves, is likewise supported by those same shapes, the strongest used in construction. By employing as few points of contact with the ground as structurally possible, the stabiles take on a distinctly biomorphic appearance. The monumental counterpart to the present work resides in the south pool of the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York (fig. 1), where it appears to rise from the water like some fantastically abstract Leviathan. Measuring 19 by 30 feet, the hulking mass of steel does not feel bound to the earth, but rather alive, as though it may stride boldly off its plinths at any moment. This effect, the interplay of negative space and solid form, could not be achieved at such scale without the maquette.

The complexity of the stabiles invigorated Calder; he had already conquered sculpture of the air, and reveled in the challenge of reproducing that levity in a medium that so fundamentally opposed it. Just as Calder once liberated sculpture from the limits of stone and wood, so did the maquettes liberate Calder; free to explore his boundless creativity without limitation, he cemented his legacy as a titan of 20th century art.


More information about Alexander Calder. See also: Calder, Alexander Artist.

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