拍品專文
Jean-Paul Satre eloquently expresses the unique character of Calder's mobiles: "A mobile, one might say, is a little private celebration, an object defined by its movement and having no other existence... Sculpture suggests movement, painting suggests depth or light. A mobile does not suggest anything: it captures genuine living movement and shapes them...The mobiles which are neither wholly alive or wholly mechanical, and which always eventually return to their original form, may be likened to water grasses in the changing currents, or to the petals of a sensitive plant, or to gossamer caught in an updraft...they are..lyrical inventions, technical combinations of an almost mathematical quality, and sensitive symbols of Nature, of that profilgate nature which squanders pollen, while unloosening a flight of a thousand butterflies..." (Jean-Paul Sartre, Calder's Mobiles, Bucholz Gallery 1947)
Calder's background knowledge of engineering and physics helped him calculate the critical issues of balance and motion in his mobiles in the Thirties, and as they became larger and more complex, the potential for movement also grew. This particular creation is a maquette for the piece entitled "Snow Flurry" in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. This model is a smaller, simplified version, although the intricacies of its construction still allow for it to create infinitely varied patterns in space. These delicate white discs which float freely appear translucent and weightless; their light, swirling movements create the same effect as a snow storm.
Calder's preference for simple shapes is partly based on the suggestiveness of circular and oval forms. They can be apprehended and understood immediately, and the artist credits their inspiration, along with his tendency to keep to simple, disparate colours, to Miró. This clarity of forms and colours in Calder is paramount.
As he himself wrote, "A mobile is a very modest thing" and observed with his characteristic pragmatism: "I do alot of things that look like snowflakes. The round, white disc is pretty much a standard thing in life - snowflakes, money, bubbles, cooking devices." (repro. in J. Lipman, Calder's Universe, London 1977, p. 268)
Calder's background knowledge of engineering and physics helped him calculate the critical issues of balance and motion in his mobiles in the Thirties, and as they became larger and more complex, the potential for movement also grew. This particular creation is a maquette for the piece entitled "Snow Flurry" in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. This model is a smaller, simplified version, although the intricacies of its construction still allow for it to create infinitely varied patterns in space. These delicate white discs which float freely appear translucent and weightless; their light, swirling movements create the same effect as a snow storm.
Calder's preference for simple shapes is partly based on the suggestiveness of circular and oval forms. They can be apprehended and understood immediately, and the artist credits their inspiration, along with his tendency to keep to simple, disparate colours, to Miró. This clarity of forms and colours in Calder is paramount.
As he himself wrote, "A mobile is a very modest thing" and observed with his characteristic pragmatism: "I do alot of things that look like snowflakes. The round, white disc is pretty much a standard thing in life - snowflakes, money, bubbles, cooking devices." (repro. in J. Lipman, Calder's Universe, London 1977, p. 268)