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拍品專文
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A10922.
"Calder's process of fabricating a monumental sculpture was a feat of engineering. His methods were industrial, but the resulting works are graceful and fluid structures that resonate with their surroundings. Whether they are placed in a public, urban site or in a natural setting, Calder's sculptures seem to adapt to their environment." (A.S.C. Rower, "Calder in Nature", Calder, Storm King Center, 2003. p.13).
Between 1936 and 1941, Alexander Calder made a small series of large outdoor standing mobiles using industrial materials. Tripod is a magnificent example of Calder's early outdoor work from this period, and one of the few left in private hands. Exhibited in Calder's major survey at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943, it had remained in the artist's personal collection and on extended loan to MoMA until 1961. Calder gave it to his friend and neighbor, Rufus Stillman. Stillman was an amateur photographer whom Calder periodically relied upon to photograph works in the studio. Although Stillman nicknamed the sculpture "Giraffe", the artist intended the work to be non-objective. The organic forms of the work allude to the natural world without specifically representing anything in it.
Calder made his first outdoor works in his studio in Roxbury, Connecticut, using the same techniques and materials as his smaller works. Exhibited outside, Calder's standing mobiles move elegantly in the breeze, bobbing and swirling in natural, spontaneous rhythms. The first few outdoor works in fact were too delicate for strong winds, and Calder was forced to rethink his fabrication process.
In 1936 Calder responded to the problem by changing his working methods. He began to create smaller scale maquettes that were then enlarged to monumental size. The larger works were made under his direction, using the classic enlargement techniques used in different ways by traditional sculptors, including his father and grandfather. Calder began to draw his designs on brown craft paper, which he enlarged using a grid. His large-scale works could be created according to his exact specifications while simultaneously allowing him the liberty to adjust or correct a shape or line if necessary.
The eccentric abstract forms of Tripod, with its slightly bent "knees" and natural grace, demonstrate Calder's close spiritual and formal link with the work of his great friend, Joan Miró. Calder had met Miró in Paris in 1928, and the two artists shared a rebellious curiosity and desire to see the world in new ways, as well as a unique appreciation for each other's sense of humor. Calder and Miró developed a visual dialogue of color, form and wit. Both artists encouraged in the other's work a new simplicity, a shift towards abstraction, and in Calder's case, a more direct concern with the fundamental questions of medium and method.
Calder was asked to define his work in the year that he was making Tripod. He stated, "I really don't think that the thing can be reduced to a formula. Each thing I make has, according to its degree of success, a plastic quality which includes many things - mass, or masses; the sinuosity; the contrast of lightness to mass; the contrast of black to white; the contrast of somberness to color; whatever element of movement there is in the object, even its manner of suspension (i.e. support). These things may be related, and they doubtless are, but I have formed no theories about the relation. An idea will lead me to make a new "object" which may come from almost anywhere, from anything." (A. Calder quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 138).
In Tripod, Calder bends and attaches the legs to a conical shaped "skirt" that acts as a solid, generative center from which the rods and hanging elements extend. Large organic shapes balance at the end of these rods creating a bold silhouette evocative of a Surrealist creature. Some elements are painted a different color on each side, so that one experiences subtle changes in composition as the work gently swings in the wind. When placed outdoors, the sculpture becomes a stunning counterpoint to its natural surroundings, and yet indoors it inspires a visual dialogue with the architectural environment.
"Calder's process of fabricating a monumental sculpture was a feat of engineering. His methods were industrial, but the resulting works are graceful and fluid structures that resonate with their surroundings. Whether they are placed in a public, urban site or in a natural setting, Calder's sculptures seem to adapt to their environment." (A.S.C. Rower, "Calder in Nature", Calder, Storm King Center, 2003. p.13).
Between 1936 and 1941, Alexander Calder made a small series of large outdoor standing mobiles using industrial materials. Tripod is a magnificent example of Calder's early outdoor work from this period, and one of the few left in private hands. Exhibited in Calder's major survey at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943, it had remained in the artist's personal collection and on extended loan to MoMA until 1961. Calder gave it to his friend and neighbor, Rufus Stillman. Stillman was an amateur photographer whom Calder periodically relied upon to photograph works in the studio. Although Stillman nicknamed the sculpture "Giraffe", the artist intended the work to be non-objective. The organic forms of the work allude to the natural world without specifically representing anything in it.
Calder made his first outdoor works in his studio in Roxbury, Connecticut, using the same techniques and materials as his smaller works. Exhibited outside, Calder's standing mobiles move elegantly in the breeze, bobbing and swirling in natural, spontaneous rhythms. The first few outdoor works in fact were too delicate for strong winds, and Calder was forced to rethink his fabrication process.
In 1936 Calder responded to the problem by changing his working methods. He began to create smaller scale maquettes that were then enlarged to monumental size. The larger works were made under his direction, using the classic enlargement techniques used in different ways by traditional sculptors, including his father and grandfather. Calder began to draw his designs on brown craft paper, which he enlarged using a grid. His large-scale works could be created according to his exact specifications while simultaneously allowing him the liberty to adjust or correct a shape or line if necessary.
The eccentric abstract forms of Tripod, with its slightly bent "knees" and natural grace, demonstrate Calder's close spiritual and formal link with the work of his great friend, Joan Miró. Calder had met Miró in Paris in 1928, and the two artists shared a rebellious curiosity and desire to see the world in new ways, as well as a unique appreciation for each other's sense of humor. Calder and Miró developed a visual dialogue of color, form and wit. Both artists encouraged in the other's work a new simplicity, a shift towards abstraction, and in Calder's case, a more direct concern with the fundamental questions of medium and method.
Calder was asked to define his work in the year that he was making Tripod. He stated, "I really don't think that the thing can be reduced to a formula. Each thing I make has, according to its degree of success, a plastic quality which includes many things - mass, or masses; the sinuosity; the contrast of lightness to mass; the contrast of black to white; the contrast of somberness to color; whatever element of movement there is in the object, even its manner of suspension (i.e. support). These things may be related, and they doubtless are, but I have formed no theories about the relation. An idea will lead me to make a new "object" which may come from almost anywhere, from anything." (A. Calder quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 138).
In Tripod, Calder bends and attaches the legs to a conical shaped "skirt" that acts as a solid, generative center from which the rods and hanging elements extend. Large organic shapes balance at the end of these rods creating a bold silhouette evocative of a Surrealist creature. Some elements are painted a different color on each side, so that one experiences subtle changes in composition as the work gently swings in the wind. When placed outdoors, the sculpture becomes a stunning counterpoint to its natural surroundings, and yet indoors it inspires a visual dialogue with the architectural environment.