Alexander Calder (1898-1976)

This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A07554.





'How does art come into being? Out of volumes, motion, spaces carved out within the surrounding space, the universe. Out of different masses, tight, heavy middling - achieved by variations of size and color. Out of directional line - vectors representing motion, velocity, acceleration, energy etc. - lines which form significant angles and directions, making up one, or several tonalities. Spaces and volumes, created by the slightest opposition to their mass, or penetrated by vectors, traversed by momentum. None of which is fixed. Each element can move, shift or sway back and forth in a changing relation to each other and independently of other elements in the universe. Thus they reveal not only isolated moments, but a physical law of variation among the events of life. Not extractions, but abstractions: Abstractions which resemble no living thing, except in their manner of reacting' (A. Calder, 'Comment réaliser l'art?', Abstraction, Création, Art Non-Figuratif, no. 1, 1932, p. 6).