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Lot Essay
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A08790.
Executed at the peak of Alexander Calder’s career, the elegant Le Rectangle jaune is the culmination of the artist’s unprecedented interest in kinetic sculptures. Although abstract, Calder’s forms often resonate with nature, and Le Rectangle jaune’s elegant, organic form resembles that of a deciduous tree. Centered around a trunk-like piece sheet metal that stands on a wedge-like base, its two branches carry radically different objects. One simply bears the titular yellow rectangle, hanging down as if some exotic fruit, while the other sprouts out into a profusion of smaller tendrils, each affixed with a white leaf-like element. The dynamism of these moving sections is counterpoised with the stasis of the central piece, placing Le Rectangle jaune in the lineage of both Calder’s iconic mobiles and the stabile structures that emerged in his late career.
The sculpture’s vivid polychromy recalls the palette of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, a longtime friend of Calder’s. Although Calder was part of the Modern movement, his investigations into moving sculpture are wholly original, adding a dynamic element to a historically stationary medium. They also possess a rare serenity, with the artist describing his ideal movement as “a slow gentle impulse, as though one were moving a barge” (A. Calder, quoted in A. Coxon, “Composing Motions: Staging Calder’s ‘Performing Sculpture,’” in A. Borchardt-Hume (ed.), Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, exh. cat. Tate, London, 2016, p. 27). This motion also allows Le Rectangle jaune to be seen in numerous different arrangements and from an abundance of different perspectives, multiplying its sense of wonder.
Executed at the peak of Alexander Calder’s career, the elegant Le Rectangle jaune is the culmination of the artist’s unprecedented interest in kinetic sculptures. Although abstract, Calder’s forms often resonate with nature, and Le Rectangle jaune’s elegant, organic form resembles that of a deciduous tree. Centered around a trunk-like piece sheet metal that stands on a wedge-like base, its two branches carry radically different objects. One simply bears the titular yellow rectangle, hanging down as if some exotic fruit, while the other sprouts out into a profusion of smaller tendrils, each affixed with a white leaf-like element. The dynamism of these moving sections is counterpoised with the stasis of the central piece, placing Le Rectangle jaune in the lineage of both Calder’s iconic mobiles and the stabile structures that emerged in his late career.
The sculpture’s vivid polychromy recalls the palette of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, a longtime friend of Calder’s. Although Calder was part of the Modern movement, his investigations into moving sculpture are wholly original, adding a dynamic element to a historically stationary medium. They also possess a rare serenity, with the artist describing his ideal movement as “a slow gentle impulse, as though one were moving a barge” (A. Calder, quoted in A. Coxon, “Composing Motions: Staging Calder’s ‘Performing Sculpture,’” in A. Borchardt-Hume (ed.), Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, exh. cat. Tate, London, 2016, p. 27). This motion also allows Le Rectangle jaune to be seen in numerous different arrangements and from an abundance of different perspectives, multiplying its sense of wonder.