This curvilinear gold and steel wire pin was given by Calder to his wife, Louisa, as a 53rd birthday gift in 1958. The inscription, "XIX.II.L.VIII,” marks the date. This spectacular piece measures 2½ by 5¼ inches. Private collection, New York. ©2007 Calder Foundation, New York City.
:Best known for his sculptural mobiles and stabiles, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) was also a prolific, skilled maker of objets d'art, especially jewelry. During his lifetime he created some 1,800 bracelets, brooches, earrings, necklaces, pins, rings and tiaras made of brass, gold, silver and steel, often embellished with found objects like glass and wood. These diminutive, avant-garde creations were attuned to the aesthetics of the modern age, but they remained personal and idiosyncratic — unmistakably Calder. His jewelry has the same linear yet three-dimensional quality as his famous sculptures; their parts were hammered, shaped and composed in the same way.
"Calder Jewelry," on view at the Norton Museum of Art through June 15, is organized by the Norton and the Calder Foundation. It is the first museum exhibition focused solely on the artist's extensive output of characteristically inventive, whimsical jewelry. The display of about 100 works, plus several notebooks of working drawings, documents the extent to which Calder's jewelry has the same dynamic and dimensional qualities as his revolutionary mobiles.
Far from conventional pieces, "Calder's jewelry may be most appropriately be defined as ornaments for the body," observes Jane Adlin, associate curator in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's department of Nineteenth Century, Modern and contemporary art. His pieces, she writes in the exhibition catalog, "have more in common with…[ornaments] made by ancient cultures than jewelry in the traditional sense of Western gem wear."
Calder often incorporated "primitive” touches into his work. The closely laid, parallel strips of flattened silver wire of this "Bracelet,” circa 1948, may have been inspired by his knowledge of ornamental objects worn by African tribesmen. Private collection. ©2007 Calder Foundation, New York City.
"To Alexander Calder, each piece of jewelry was a work of sculptural art," observes Norton Museum director Christina Orr-Cahall. "His inventive jewelry techniques echoed those used for his world-famous sculptures."
Raised in Philadelphia, Calder was the son and grandson of distinguished sculptors. His grandfather, Alexander Milne Calder, created solid classical sculpture, notably the giant bronze of William Penn atop Philadelphia's City Hall. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder, sculpted beaux-art works, including the Swann Memorial Fountain in Philadelphia's Logan Circle.
Alexander Calder began making objects like clay elephants at a tender age. At 8, he fabricated necklaces and other trinkets for his sister's dolls, using beads and discarded copper electrical wire. At 11, he snipped and folded thin sheets of brass into a miniature dog and duck as Christmas presents for his parents.
