Alexander Calder, “Cornucopia,” 1955, registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York ($400/600,000).

ALEXANDRIA, VA. – The Potomack Company is presenting a special auction, Alexander Calder Works, from a Friend’s Collection, on November 17 at 11 am to include four works of art in different media by Calder never before on the market. The art has belonged to the family of Calder’s friend and neighbor, Andi Schiltz, since being gifted by the artist.

Highlighting the sale is Calder’s dynamic and colorful oil painting, “Cornucopia,” 1955, from the year of Calder’s three-month voyage to India with his wife. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, and is representative of Calder’s audacious use of color – a bold, red cornucopia, orange discs and strong black curved lines suspended in space that evoke Calder’s mobiles.

“I like black and white, that’s one thing and then, black and white and red, red’s very – it’s the only color that counts somehow,” observed Calder in a 1971 oral history interview (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.) “Cornucopia” has an auction estimate of $400/600,000.

Untitled, 1963, is a signed and dated gouache and ink on paper that is also registered with the Calder Foundation ($20/30,000). “Composition,” 1964, is a color lithograph signed and inscribed to Schiltz.

The final item in the sale is a graphite floor plan drawing by Schiltz with notations in black ink by Calder. Schiltz, a longtime friend and neighbor of Calder, was an industrial engineer and one of the designers for Boeing’s “Stratoliner” aircraft.

Potomack Company is at 1120 N. Fairfax Street. For information, 703-684-4550 or www.potomackcompany.com.