Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
The Tuttleman Collection
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)

Untitled

Details
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Untitled
stabile--sheet metal and paint
2 ¾ x 3 x 2 ½ in. (6.9 x 7.6 x 6.3 cm.)
Executed circa 1942.
Provenance
Private collection, Paris, acquired directly from the artist
Anon. sale; Sotheby’s, London, 4 April 1979, lot 158A
Private collection, London
James Goodman Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1981

Brought to you by

Joanna Szymkowiak
Joanna Szymkowiak

Lot Essay

This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A16483.

"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) .

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