: Internationally famous for his mobiles and stabiles, Alexander
Calder (1898-1976) is rarely remembered as a Surrealist, but
Surrealism reigned when Calder moved to Paris in 1926 and he felt
the powerful influence of the movement's key players. On June 11
at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), "The Surreal Calder"
presents more than 70 works by the artist demonstrating his place
in the avant garde movement that so dominated pre-World War II
art.
Avant-garde figures such as Jean Arp christened Calder's static
constructions "stabiles"; Marcel Duchamp suggested the name
"mobile" for Calder's kinetic works; Joan Miró familiarized
Calder with some central theses of Surrealism; and Piet Mondrian
introduced him to pure abstraction. In spite of Calder's
Surrealist lineage - he was, for example, included in the
important 1936 "Exposition surréaliste d'objets" in Paris - he
has until now generally been separated from those beginnings and
excluded from most exhibitions of Surrealist art.
Organized by the Menil Collection, Houston, this exhibition is
the first focusing on the artist's relationship to Surrealism. It
includes some of his earliest mechanized sculptures, "Goldfish
Bowl," 1929, and "Tightrope," 1936, a large sculpture that
recalls his ongoing fascination with the circus. Works from the
MIA's permanent collection have also been selected for inclusion
in "The Surreal Calder," on view through September 10 in the
MIA's new wing designed by Michael Graves and Associates.
Alexander Calder, "Ruby-Eyed," 1936, painted sheet metal and
glass, 15 by 6 1/4 by 13 inches. National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
"The Surreal Calder" sets the Surrealist stage with a
preamble of key paintings from the Menil's Surrealist collection,
featuring works by Max Ernst, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy and other
artists. The exhibition also includes a "cabinet of curiosities," a
grouping of non-Western objects collected by Calder and assembled
by the artist's grandson, Alexander S.C. Rower. Like all
Surrealists, Calder was fascinated and inspired by the kind of
ethnographic material and exotica that would fill a "cabinet of
curiosities" of his time.
The exhibition makes evident the especially strong Surrealist
vein in Calder's combinations of found materials. Works such as
"Gibraltar," 1936, reveal Calder's affinity with Arp's and Miró's
sculptures. Some of the works in the exhibition also explore
Calder's creatures, and illustrate Surrealism founder André
Breton's term of praise - merveilleux (marvelous).
Calder was born July 22, 1898, near Philadelphia, into a family
of artists (his grandfather sculpted the famous figure of William
Penn atop Philadelphia's City Hall). Calder earned a mechanical
engineering degree at Stevens Institute of Technology in New
Jersey. Among the subjects he studied was applied kinetics,
dealing with the effects of force on free-moving bodies, which
eventually contributed to his invention of the mobile. He
attended the Art Students League in New York before leaving for
Paris, where he studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
Calder thereafter divided his time between France and the United
States. He died in New York on November 11, 1976.
A fully illustrated color catalog accompanies this exhibition,
and includes an essay by organizing curator Mark Rosenthal.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is at 2400 Third Avenue. For
information, 612-870-3131 or www.artsmia.org.
