PROPERTY FROM THE FRANCEY AND DR. MARTIN L. GECHT COLLECTION Francey and Martin Gecht started their collecting life together in the 1960s. Beginning with Japanese wood block prints they swiftly transferred their interests to the lithographs of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and gradually expanded the scope to include Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American and European works on paper and prints. The collection was the subject of a notable exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago in 2003-2004. Inspection of the collection housed high above Lake Shore Drive in Chicago revealed the passion and intelligence of the collectors. By hanging prints, drawings and watercolors together the Gechts set up conversations between the various periods of individual artists' works, between artistic contemporaries and artists who preceded or succeeded them. In their quest they worked closely with staff of the Art Institute, most specifically with the late Harold Joachim, Douglas Druick and Suzanne Folds McCullough. Martin joined the Committee on Prints and Drawings in 1975 and the Gechts were regular contributors to the collection. They were further guided by various dealers, most notably Alice Adam and Bud Holland. However the dialogue which was set up in the rooms overlooking Lake Michigan was a reflection of the Gechts' love for their objects and their own tastes and likes came through clearly. Once the walls were full it became clear that the only surfaces left were the window sills and tables throughout the apartment and so sculpture was added to the mix. The great Calder reclining nude arrived fairly early on but she was soon joined by other sculptures by Matisse, Picasso, Miro, Giacometti and others. Following their generous gift to The Art Institute of a large number of the prints and drawings from the collection, it is a group of these sculptures that Mrs. Gecht has decided to consign to Christie's for our spring sales of Impressionist and Modern and Post-War and Contemporary Art. The Toulouse Lautrec La Goulue will be offered in the Print sale on May 3rd and the oldest piece in the collection, a second century figure of Isis will be offered in the Antiquities sale on June 8th. Property from the Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht Collection

Alexander Calder (1898-1976)

La botte (maquette)

細節

Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
La botte (maquette)
stabile--painted sheet metal
19 x 18 x 11½ in. (48.2 x 45.7 x 29.2 cm.)
Executed circa 1959.

來源

Galerie Maeght, Paris
Dr. and Mrs. Blum, New York, 1989
Edward Tyler Nahem, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner

拍品專文

This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A11069.

Calder created La botte in 1959, during a period in which he dramatically increased his production of stabiles as both stand-alone works and as maquettes for his monumental pieces. Mildred Glimcher comments:

"Whereas the standing mobile's base mediates between the earth and the air, the stabiles remain rooted to the earth, as does man himself. Like the mobiles, they activate the surrounding space and share their quality of animation, which derives from the organic character of the shapes and the lively outlines of the forms (a quality hard to actually define but essential in all the work). But the stabiles are also the reverse of the mobiles -static, with the potential for movement but not moving. The sense of 'potential energy,' of energy barely contained, endows them with a powerful presence" (M. Glimcher, "Alexander Calder: Toward Monumentalism," Alexander Calder: The 50s, Pace Wildenstein, exh. cat., 1995, pp. 16-17) .

The title of the work may be translated several ways, each a unique interpretation of the combination of shapes. La botte can mean a jack boot (perhaps seen on its side horizontally), or a bunch or bale, or a thrust.

La botte is a maquette for a monumental sculpture of the same name that is in the collection of the Museum Ludwig, in Cologne.