Alexander Calder - 20th c. and Contemporary Art Day Sale - Morning Session New York Tuesday, December 8, 2020 | Phillips
  • It was in the heady climate of 1920s Paris that Calder developed his artistic sensibility. A young engineer who decided to pursue a career as an artist, Calder had enrolled at the Art Students League in New York before moving to Paris in 1926. Soon after arriving in Montparnasse, Calder embarked upon his first major body of work that reflected his lifelong fascination with the circus: crafting lilliputian figures and props from simple, easily readily materials such as wood, wire, metal, cloth and cork, he summoned an imaginative universe comprised of animals, clowns and acrobats which he would activate in his legendary performances.

     

    Calder’s fascination for the circus, a theme that would continue to appear throughout his career, also shows itself in this work from the collection of Ruth O’Hara. It shows the remarkable economy of line with which Calder was able to render form. Indeed, Calder’s early work, especially the Circus installation, can be seen to set many of the principles and concepts that would inform his groundbreaking sculptural practice just years later.

    • Provenance

      William and Rosario Drew, New York (gifted by the artist)
      The Estate of Mr. And Mrs. William B.F. Drew (by descent from the above)
      Doyle, New York, November 12, 2008, lot 1109
      Acquired at the above sale by Ruth O'Hara

    • Exhibited

      Paris, Parc des Expositions, Port de Versailles, Association Artistique les Surindépendants, October 25 - November 24, 1930
      San Francisco, John Berggruen Gallery, Independent Visions: American Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture, July 31 – August 31, 2009
      New York, Barbara Mathes Gallery, Master Drawings New York, January 24 – March 9, 2013
      New York, James Goodman Gallery, Calder: Space in Play, October 22 – December 19, 2014
      New York, Hammer Galleries, Modern Masters: Between the Wars, November 1, 2016 – February 28, 2017

    • Literature

      Jacques Prévert, Couleurs de Braque, Calder, Miró, Paris, 1981, p. 59 (illustrated)
      Arnauld Pierre, Calder: La sculpture en mouvement, Paris, 1996, p. 25 (l'Association artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated)
      Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2008, fig. 4, p. 187 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated)
      Arnauld Pierre, Calder: Mouvement et réalité, Paris, 2009, p. 92 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated)
      Alexander Calder: Les années parisiennes, 1926-1933, exh. cat., Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2009, p. 93 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated)
      Calder – Picasso, exh. cat., Musée Picasso, Paris, 2019, fig. 8, p. 228 (l'Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Paris, 1930, installation view illustrated)

    • Artist Biography

      Alexander Calder

      American • 1898 - 1976

      Alexander Calder worked as an abstract sculptor and has been commonly referred to as the creator of the mobile. He employed industrious materials of wire and metal and transformed them into delicate geometric shapes that respond to the wind or float in air. Born into a family of sculptors, Calder created art from childhood and moved to Paris in 1926, where he became a pioneer of the international avant-garde. In addition to his mobiles, Calder produced an array of public constructions worldwide as well as drawings and paintings that feature the same brand of abstraction. Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania.

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Property from the Estate of Ruth O’Hara

116

Untitled

signed "Calder" lower right
ink and crayon on paper
19 x 24 1/4 in. (48.3 x 61.6 cm)
Executed circa 1930, this work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A23599.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$18,000 - 25,000 

Sold for $52,920

Contact Specialist

John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
New York
+1 212 940 1261

jmccord@phillips.com

20th c. and Contemporary Art Day Sale - Morning Session

New York 8 December 2020