Whitney Museum: Alexander Calder 1922-1933 Chronology

Chronology Alexander S.C. Rower

Key to Chronology: Archival Sources AAA (Alexander Calder papers, 1926–1967, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,) includes artist-donated letters, photographs, press clippings, exhibition announcements, and a scrapbook containing hundreds of clippings and memorabilia from 1926 to 1932. ASL (Art Students League of New York) CF (Calder Foundation, New York) maintains an archive of more than 120,000 documents, including correspondence and unpublished manuscripts, 26,000 photographs, and thousands of press clippings, articles, books, and films. In addition, the Foundation’s catalogue raisonné project maintains a database of more than 22,000 works of art by Calder with photography, physical data, provenance, and publication and exhibition history for each piece. FJM (Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Mallorca) JJS (James Johnson Sweeney Archive [private collection]) NYPL (New York Public Library) Publications “‘Abie’ Goldstein, New King of the Bantams.” National Police Gazette, May 3, 1924, 3. Berch, Bettina. Radical by Design: The Life and Style of Elizabeth Hawes; Fashion Designer, Union Organizer, Best-Selling Author. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1988.

Gray, Cleve. “Calder’s Circus.” Art in America 52, no. 5, October 1964, 22–48. Hawes, Elizabeth.“More than Modern–Wiry Art.”Charm, April 1928, 47,68. Hawes, Elizabeth. Fashion is Spinach. New York: Random House, 1938. Hayes, Margaret Calder. Three Alexander Calders: A Family Memoir. Middlebury, VT: Paul S. Eriksson, 1977. “International Artist Pays Visit to Concord.” Concord Herald 3, no. 24, June 16, 1932. “Jouets et objets de poésie.” Comoedia, August 29, 1927. Lanchner, Carolyn. Joan Miró. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1993. Lechenperg, Harald. “Atelierfest am Montparnasse.” Illustrierte Zeitung (Leipzig edition), August 29, 1929. Legrand-Chabrier. “Un petit cirque a` domicile.” Candide, no. 171 (June 23, 1927): 7. Lipman, Jean. Calder’s Universe. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976. Miró, Joan. Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves. Paris: Seuil, 1977. New York Herald (Paris edition), May 21, 1929.

“By Way of Mention.” Top Notes, December 28, 1929.

“Objects to Art Being Static, So He Keeps It in Motion.” New York WorldTelegram, June 11, 1932.

Calder, Alexander. “Comment réaliser l’art?” Abstraction-Création, Art non figuratif, no. 1, 1932, 6.

Pemberton, Murdock. “Review of Exhibitions.” New Yorker, January 2, 1926, 21.

Calder, Alexander. “Mobiles.” In The Painter’s Object, edited by Myfanwy Evans. London: Gerold Howe, 1937, 62–67.

Powell, Hickman. “His Elephants Don’t Drink.” World, January 18, 1931.

Calder, Alexander, and Jean Davidson. Calder, An Autobiography with Pictures. New York: Pantheon Books, 1966.

Recht, Paul. “Dans le mouvement, les sculptures mouvantes.” Mouvement, no. 1, June 1933, 49.

Chavanée. Liberté, no. 37, January 21, 1929.

“Seeing the Circus with ‘Sandy’ Calder.” National Police Gazette, May 23, 1925, 14.

“Darkness Falls At 9:11.” New York Times, January 24, 1925.

“Sudden Brain Waves.” New Yorker, November 30, 1929.

de Pawlowski. Le Journal, January 19, 1929.

Sweeney, James Johnson. Alexander Calder. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1951.

“Futurist Toys for Advanced Kiddies Created by Calder, Artist-Engineer.” New York Herald (Paris edition), August 4, 1927, 7. Gasch, Sebastián. “El circ d’un escultor.” Mirador, no. 191, September 29, 1932. Geist, Sidney. “The Firemen’s Ball for Brancusi.” Archives of American Art Journal 16, no. 1, 1976, 8–11.

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Fig. 1 Untitled [Stirling and Nanette Calder], 1924, Etching, sheet: 10 1⁄4 x 7 9⁄16 in. (26 x 17.8 cm); plate: 6 x 5 in. (15.2 x 12.7 cm) Calder Foundation, New York Fig. 2 City Park, 1924–26. Lithograph, sheet and image: 12 1⁄8 x 19 in. (30.8 x 48.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Print Committee 94.117

Alexander Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, on July 22 1898, the second child of artist parents. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder (18701945), was a classically trained sculptor, and his mother, Nanette Lederer Calder (1866–1960), a painter. As a young boy Calder often posed for his parents. Stirling received many public commissions, moving his family often around the United States. Throughout his youth, Calder was encouraged to create. When he was eight, his parents gave him the cellar of the family’s home in Pasadena, California, to use as his own studio. In this childhood workshop, Calder honed his natural facility with tools as he experimented with common materials to create sculptures and toys. For Christmas of 1909, Calder presented his parents with two of his first sculptures: a dog and a duck each trimmed from a sheet of brass and bent into formation. The duck is kinetic; it rocks back and forth when tapped. Calder’s mechanical ability led him to pursue engineering as a vocation and in 1919 he received his degree in mechanical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. Calder was briefly employed in a variety of positions, among them as a draftsman for the New York Edison Company and as an efficiency engineer for the firm Miller, Franklin, Bassett, before ultimately embracing a career as an artist in 1923.

1922 June: Serving on the H.F. Alexander as a fireman in the boiler room, Calder sails from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. During the voyage, off Guatemala, he awakes on deck to a brilliant rising sun and a full setting moon on opposite horizons. (Calder 1966, 53–55) Mid-June: Arriving in San Francisco, Calder takes a lumber schooner to Willapa Harbor, Washington, where he catches the bus for Aberdeen and meets his sister Peggy and her husband, Kenneth Hayes. Calder finds a job as a timekeeper for a logging camp in Independence, Washington. I was supposed to make out paychecks for people. I also had to scale the logs as they were loaded on the flatcars. (Calder 1966, 55–56) Summer: Inspired by the logging camp landscape, Calder writes home and asks his mother for paints and brushes. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 39; Calder 1966, 57–58) 1923 Spring: With the help of Stirling’s introduction, Calder seeks employment with an engineer in Canada. I went to Vancouver and called on him, and we had quite a talk about what career I should follow. He advised me to do what I really wanted to do—he himself often wished he had been an architect. So, I decided to become a painter. (Calder 1966, 59) Before October: Calder returns to New York and stays with his parents at 119 East Tenth Street. (Calder 1966, 59) October–December: Calder begins classes at the Art Students League of New York, studying life and pictorial composition with John Sloan and portrait painting with George Luks. (Calder 1966, 59–61, 66–67; ASL, registration records) 1924 January–April: Calder enrolls again at the Art Students League, taking classes in portrait painting with George Luks, head and figure with Guy Pène Du Bois, a drawing class with Boardman Robinson, and an etching class. (ASL, registration records) 267

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Winter: Calder travels to Florida. First he visits Miami, then Sarasota, where he sketches at the winter grounds of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. I was very fond of the spatial relations. I love the space of the circus. I made some drawings of nothing but the tent. The whole thing of—the vast space—I’ve always loved it. (Gray 1964, 23) 1926 January: Artists Gallery, New York, includes an oil painting by Calder in a group exhibition. Murdock Pemberton, the art critic for the New Yorker, comments on the exhibition: A. Calder, too, we think is a good bet. (CF, exhibition file; Pemberton 1926)

Fig. 3 Calder’s U.S. passport, issued June 26, 1926. Calder Foundation, New York

Before May 3: Calder begins his first job as an artist, illustrating sporting events and city scenes for the National Police Gazette. (Calder 1966, 67; Gazette, May 3) Before May 17: Calder moves into his father’s studio, 11 East Fourteenth Street, while his parents are traveling in Europe. (Calder 1966, 66, 70; Hayes 1977, 81) September–November: Calder studies life drawing with Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League. (ASL, registration records) 1925 January 24: A total eclipse of the sun is visible from the northern part of Manhattan. Along with thousands of New Yorkers, Calder travels uptown, stopping at the steps of Columbia University to watch. He makes The Eclipse (A01041), an oil painting of the scene. (New York Times, January 24; CF, object file) March: Calder studies life drawing with Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League. (ASL, registration records) March 6–29: Calder exhibits The Eclipse at the Ninth Annual Exhibition of The Society of Independent Artists, Waldorf-Astoria, New York. In the exhibition catalogue he lists his address as 119 East Tenth Street, where he periodically lives with his parents. (CF, exhibition file)

Winter: While renting a room in the apartment of Alexander Brook, assistant director of the Whitney Studio Club, Calder embellishes the Brook children’s “Humpty Dumpty Circus.” He adds movement and articulation to the set of store-bought toys, making an elephant that could “go round a circle” and a mechanism that could “hoist a clown on his back.” (Hayes 1977, 90; Calder 1966, 80; CF, Calder 1955–56, 44) February 27: American painter Walter Kuhn organizes a stag dinner at the Union Square Volunteer Fire Brigade, Tip Toe Inn, New York, in honor of sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s first visit to the United States. Calder paints Firemen’s Dinner for Brancusi (A00413) commemorating the event. (Geist 1976; AAA, Louis Bouché Papers, dinner invitation) Before March 5: Calder sketches a human dissection at Physicians and Surgeons Hospital. I drew for several hours and subsequently painted The Stiff (A15753) . . . I went to a party that evening and kept asking if I did not smell of forma(h)ldehide—my hair, particularly. They said “no”—but the odor was with me—and although I really intended returning, I never did. (CF, Calder 1955-56, 51) March 5–28: Calder exhibits The Stiff at the Tenth Annual Exhibition of The Society of Independent Artists, Waldorf-Astoria, New York. (CF, exhibition file) March 8–20: Calder exhibits an oil painting at the Whitney Studio Club Eleventh Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Members of the Club, Anderson Galleries, New York. (CF, exhibition file) Spring: At his friend Betty Salemme’s house on Candlewood Lake in Sherman, Connecticut, Calder carves his first wood sculpture, Flat Cat (A04792), from an oak fence post. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 174)

Before May 23: Calder spends two weeks illustrating the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for the National Police Gazette. I could tell by the music what act was getting on and used to rush to some vantage point. Some acts were better seen from above and others from below. (Calder 1966, 73; Gazette, May 23)

Spring: Calder moves into a tiny, one-room apartment at 249 West Fourteenth Street. There he makes his first wire sculpture, a sundial (A23544) in the form of a “rooster on a vertical rod with radiating lines at the foot” to demarcate the hours. (Hayes 1977, 90; Calder 1966, 71-72)

Winter: Calder makes hundreds of brush drawings of animals at the Bronx Zoo and the Central Park Zoo. (CF, object files; Sweeney 1951, 72)

May: Animal Sketching (A00376), a drawing manual written by Calder with reproductions of 141 of his brush drawings, is published by Bridgman Publishers. (CF, project file)

December: Calder takes a lithography class with Charles Locke at the Art Students League. (ASL, registration records)

May: Calder exhibits The Horse Show (A16014) in an exhibition on the

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Fig. 4 Calder’s carte d’identité, issued August 3, 1926. Calder Foundation, New York

subject of the horse at the Anderson Galleries, New York, curated by Karl Freund. (CF, exhibition file) June 26: Calder receives his U.S. passport in preparation for his first voyage to Europe. (CF, passport) July 2: With the help of his former teacher, Clinton Balmer, Calder signs on to the crew of the Galileo, a British freighter sailing for Hull, England. He works as a laborer, painting the exterior of the ship. (Calder 1966, 76–77; CF, Calder to parents, July 18) July 19: Calder arrives in Hull, spends one night, and takes the noon train to London. (CF, Calder to parents, July 18) July 20: Calder arrives in London and stays four nights with Bob Trube, his fraternity brother from Stevens. (CF, Calder to parents, July 26) July 24: Calder leaves England, taking the 10 am train from Victoria Station to New Haven and the ferry to Ville de Dieppe in France. He arrives in Paris and calls on Trube’s father at the Hôtel de Versailles, 60 boulevard de Montparnasse. [Trube] had written his dad to look out for me. So I got a room here at 35F and am on the 7th floor with a French window that gives fine light and air and a red rug and brown wallpaper that would knock your eye out. Also an upright piano. (CF, Calder to parents, July 26) Summer: At the Café du Dôme, a meeting place for artists and their dealers, Calder recognizes American painter Arthur Frank, an acquaintance from New York, and meets British printmaker Stanley William Hayter, whose wife he knew from the Art Students League. (Calder 1966, 78) Summer: Calder enrolls in drawing classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. (Calder 1966, 78) August 3: Calder’s French identity card is issued for 1926–27. (CF, carte d’identité) August 26: Calder establishes a studio at 22 rue Daguerre. (CF, Calder to parents, August 26) September 8: Calder is hired to leave France for a quick round-trip voyage on the SS Volendam, Holland-America Line; he sketches life on board the ship for the Student Third Cabin Association’s poster and advertising brochure. (Calder 1966, 79; CF, Calder to parents, c. August 26) September 18: Calder arrives in New York on the SS Volendam. (CF, Calder to parents, c. August 26) September 27 and 28: Calder arrives at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, on the SS Volendam and travels by train to Paris the following day. (CF, Calder to parents, September 25 and 27, and October) Fall: Calder meets Lloyd Sloane, an advertising executive, who introduces him to staff at the Boulevardier, including Marc Réal, artistic adviser. Several of Calder’s drawings are published in the Boulevardier over the next few months. (Calder 1966, 83) Fall: Calder meets a Serbian toy merchant who encourages him to make

mechanical toys for mass production. (Calder 1966, 80; CF, Calder 1955–56, 44) Fall: Through Hayter, Calder meets José de Creeft, a Spanish sculptor living on rue Broca. De Creeft suggests to Calder that he submit his toys to the Salon des Humoristes. (Calder 1966, 80) Fall: Calder begins creating Cirque Calder (A00019). Fashioned from wire, fabric, leather, rubber, cork, and other materials, Cirque Calder is designed to be performed for an audience by Calder. It develops into a multiact articulated series of mechanized sculpture in miniature scale, a distillation of the actual circus. Easily transportable, Calder is able to travel with his circus and hold performances on both continents. The performances lasted about two hours. Over the next five years, Calder continues to develop and expand this work of performance art to fill five large suitcases. (CF, project file) Fall: Clay Spohn, a painter friend from the Art Students League, visits Calder’s studio and sees two works made from wood and wire: a cow and a four-horse chariot. He suggests that Calder use only wire. Calder makes the wire sculptures, Josephine Baker (A11566) and Struttin’ His Stuff (A08308). (Calder 1966, 80–81; CF, Calder 1955–56, 45) Fall: Calder performs Cirque Calder for Mrs. Frances C. L. Robbins, a patron of young artists. On her recommendation, English novelist Mary Butts brings Jean Cocteau to a performance. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 68; Hawes 1928) 1927 March 6–May 1: Calder exhibits toys at the Salon des Humoristes at Galerie La Boétie, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) May 1: Réal brings Guy Selz and the circus critic, Legrand-Chabrier, to see Calder perform Cirque Calder. Legrand-Chabrier admires Calder’s work and writes several articles on Cirque Calder: Oh, these are stylized silhouettes, but astonishing in their miniature resem269

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blance, obtained by means of luck, iron wire, spools, corks, elastics. . . . A stroke of the brush, a stroke of the knife, of this, of that; these are the skillful marks that reconstruct the individuals that we see at the circus. Here is a dog that seems like a prehistoric cave drawing with a body of iron wire. He will jump through a paper hoop. Yes, but he may miss his mark or not. This is not a mechanical toy. . . . All of this is arranged and balanced according to the laws of physics so that it allows for the miracles of circus acrobatics. (Calder 1966, 83; CF, Calder 1955–56, 149–150; Candide, June 23)

Summer: Calder spends the summer working on wood and wire sculptures at the Peekskill, New York, farm of J. L. Murphy, the uncle of fraternity brother, Bill Drew. I worked outside on an upturned water trough and carved the wooden horse (A00232) bought later by the Museum of Modern Art, a cow (A00233), a giraffe (A04925), a camel (A13442), two elephants (A13300; A00235), another cat (A04719), several circus figures, a man with a hollow chest (A13920), and an ebony lady bending over dangerously (A09834), whom I daringly called Liquorice. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 47; Calder 1966, 88–89)

June 17: Calder renews his French identity card. (CF, carte d’identité)

October: Hawes establishes a couture house at West Fifty-sixth Street in New York. Calder occasionally designs neckpieces and other accessories for her clothing. (Hawes 1938, 134–36; Berch 1988, 34–35)

August: Galleries of Jacques Seligmann and Company, Paris, exhibits animated toys by Calder. (CF, exhibition file; Comoedia, August 29) August 4: The New York Herald, Paris edition, publishes an article about Calder and his decision to make toys: I began by futuristic painting in a small studio in the Greenwich village section of New York. It was a lot different to engineering but I took to my newfound art immediately. But it seemed that during all of this time I could never forget my training at Stevens, for I started experimenting with toys in a mechanical way. I could not experiment with mechanism as it was too expensive and too bulky so I built miniature instruments. From that the toy idea suggested itself to me so I figured I might as well turn my efforts to something that would bring remuneration. From then on I have constructed several thousand workable toys. (New York Herald, August 4) September 27: Calder returns to New York and stays with his parents at 9 East Eighth Street. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 46; Calder 1966, 86) After November 12: Calder travels to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to contract with Gould Manufacturing Company. He designs prototypes for a series of plywood animal “Action Toys.” (Calder 1966, 83–85; CF, Pajeau to Calder, November 12) Winter: Calder returns to New York and rents a room at 46 Charles Street where he gives Cirque Calder performances. (Calder 1966, 87; CF, Calder 1955–56, 46) 1928 February 20–March 3: Weyhe Gallery, New York, exhibits Wire Sculpture by Alexander Calder. Calder creates a hanging sign, Wire Sculpture by Alexander Calder (A00248), for the gallery window. (CF, exhibition file; CF, Calder 1955–56, 25) March 9–April 1: Calder exhibits four sculptures, including Romulus and Remus (A00247) and Spring (A00619), at the Twelfth Annual Exhibition of The Society of Independent Artists, Waldorf-Astoria, New York. (CF, exhibition file) After April 9: ACME Film Company produces Sculptor Discards Clay, a film of Calder’s wire sculpture that includes footage of Calder creating a wire portrait of Elizabeth “Babe” Hawes, a reporter and aspiring fashion designer whom he had met in Paris (A23147). (CF, project file) 270

October 24: The French Consulate, New York, grants Calder a visa. (AAA, passport) November 3: Calder arrives at Le Havre after a voyage from New York on the De Grasse. He returns to Paris, where he rents a small building behind 7 rue Cels to use as his studio. (AAA, passport; Calder 1966, 91) Fall: At the Café du Dôme, Paris, Calder sees his acquaintance, the painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and meets “a small man in a bowler hat,” who he learns is the painter Jules Pascin, a friend of Stirling’s. (Calder 1966, 91) December 10: At the recommendation of Hawes, Calder writes to Joan Miró in Montroig, Spain, suggesting that they meet when Miró returns to Paris. (Calder 1966, 92; FJM, Calder to Miró, December 10) End of December: Calder visits Joan Miró at his Montmartre studio, “a sort of metal tunnel, a kind of Quonset hut.” Miró has no paintings in the studio, but he shows Calder a collage consisting of “a big sheet of heavy gray cardboard with a feather, a cork, and a picture postcard glued to it. There were probably a few dotted lines . . . I was nonplussed; it did not look like art to me.” Later, Miró attends Cirque Calder. (Calder 1966, 92) 1929 January 18–28: Calder exhibits Romulus and Remus (A00247) and Spring (A00619) at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, Paris. The public reaction is a mixture of confusion and delight. One critic remarks, At first, I believed that electricians had forgotten their electrical wire in this room, but as I passed, a wire became agitated and I noticed that it represented the head of a she-wolf. Another tangle of electrical wire represented, by all evidence, a giant young woman. Another critic advises, All the same, look at them. Who knows if the sculpture of Mr. Calder is not that of the future? In any case, it doesn’t spawn melancholy. (CF, exhibition file; Le Journal, January 19; Liberté, January 21) January 25–February 7: Galerie Billiet-Pierre Vorms, Paris, exhibits Sculptures bois et fil de fer de Alexandre Calder. Jules Pascin writes the preface for the exhibition catalogue: By some miracle, I became a member of a group of Aces of American Art, a Society of very successful painters and sculptors!!!

Alexander S.C. Rower

Fig. 5 Catalogue of Alexander Calder: Skulpturen aus Holz und aus Draht, Galerie Neumann Nierendorf, April 1–15, 1929. 7 7⁄8 x 5 5⁄16 in. (17.8 x 12.7 cm). Calder Foundation, New York

no limitation to the scale to which they can be enlarged. There is one thing, in particular, which connects them with history. One of the canons of the futuristic painters, as propounded by Modigliani, was that objects behind other objects should not be lost to view, but should be shown through the others by making the latter transparent. The wire sculpture accomplishes this in a most decided manner. (CF, Calder, unpublished manuscript, 1929) February 4–23: Weyhe Gallery, New York, exhibits Wood Carvings by Alexander Calder. Calder writes to his parents about their thoughts on the exhibition: I’m glad you think the show looked well, for I was afraid they would clutter it up and detract from things. (CF, exhibition file; CF, Calder to parents, March 5) Spring: Sacha Stone, a German photographer, sees Calder perform Cirque Calder at the rue Cels studio. He suggests that Calder perform and exhibit in Berlin. (Calder 1966, 97) March 15: The German Consulate, Paris, stamps Calder’s passport. (AAA, passport) March 16–17: Calder leaves Paris with Stone and takes a train to Berlin to make arrangements for an exhibition. (CF, Calder to parents, March 17) March 20–21: Calder returns to Paris to gather works to exhibit in Berlin. (CF, Calder to parents, April 6) March 22–23: Calder travels back to Berlin to prepare his exhibition. (CF, Calder to parents, April 6) April 1–15: Galerie Neumann-Nierendorf, Berlin, exhibits Alexander Calder: Skulpturen aus Holz und aus Draht. (CF, exhibition file) April: In Berlin, Dr. Hans Cürlis directs a short film of Calder creating Two Acrobats (A08299) as part of the series Artists at Work. Calder makes a wire portrait of Cürlis (A00253). (CF, Calder to parents, before May 8) —The fortunes of the life of an itinerant painter! The same luck led me to meet the father Stirling Calder. Away from New York at the time of our exhibition, I cannot testify to the success of our effort; but in any case, I can attest that Mr. Stirling Calder, who is one of our best American sculptors, is also the handsomest man in our Group. Returning to Paris, I met his son SANDY CALDER, who at first sight left me quite disillusioned. He is less handsome than his Dad! Honestly!!! But in the presence of his works, I know that he will soon make his mark; and that despite his appearance, he will exhibit with spectacular success alongside his Dad and other great artists like me, PASCIN, who’s talking to you. . . ! (CF, exhibition file) After January 25: In writing about his own history of wire sculpting, Calder notes a change in his approach to the medium: Before, the wire studies were subjective, portraits, caricatures, stylized representations of beasts and humans. But these recent things have been viewed from a more objective angle and although their present size is diminutive, I feel that there is

After May 8: Calder exhibits a wire sculpture, at the Salon des Tuileries, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) After May 9: I have had 2 large circus parties since coming back to Paris. At one of them we had Paul Fratellini, one of the famous clowns at the Cirque d’Hiver. It was quite a swell party—and I am making one of the toys in a size large enough for him to use in the Cirque d’Hiver (A15171). (CF, Calder to parents, before May 8) Before May 21: Pathé Cinema, Paris, produces a short film of Calder at work in his rue Cels studio. Calder invites Kiki de Montparnasse to model for a wire portrait (A17094) during the filming. (Calder 1966, 99; New York Herald, May 21) Before June 22: Calder performs Cirque Calder in the studio of Léonard [Tsuguharu] Foujita, a painter and well-known denizen of Montparnasse. Foujita plays a drum to accompany Calder’s performance. Man Ray and Kiki are among the guests in attendance. (Lechenperg, Illustrierte Zeitung [Leipzig edition], August 29)

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Fig. 6 Poster for circus performance on August 28, 1929. Linoleum cut with blue ink on paper. Calder Scrapbook, 1926–32, 72. Alexander Calder papers, 1926–1967, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

August 28: Calder performs Cirque Calder at Hawes’s couture house, 8 West Fifty-sixth Street, New York. (AAA, circus poster) October 29: Calder performs Cirque Calder at art patron Mildred Harbeck’s apartment, 306 Lexington Avenue, New York. (AAA, circus poster) November–December: Calder stays with his friend, book designer Robert Josephy, at Beekman Place and Fiftieth Street. Josephy was very enthusiastic over my circus. This encouraged me and while at his house, I worked on it very hard. He helped me. We made the chariot race and the lion tamer, and it got to be quite a full blown circus, growing from two suitcases into five. (Calder 1966, 103) November 30: After the New Yorker announces that performances of Cirque Calder can be arranged through the Junior League entertainment center at Saks Fifth Avenue, Calder is hired by Newbold Morris to perform in his Babylon, Long Island, home; Isamu Noguchi operates a phonograph providing the music. (“Sudden Brain Waves” 1929; CF, Calder 1955–56, 142) December 2–14: Fifty-sixth Street Galleries, New York, exhibits Alexander Calder: Paintings, Wood Sculpture, Toys, Wire Sculpture, Jewelry, Textiles. (CF, exhibition file) December 16: For her birthday, Calder gives Hawes a wire “chastity belt” that spells out her name along with the French café slogan “ouvert la nuit” (open at night). (Hawes 1938, 136; Berch 1988, 34–35)

Before June 22: André Kertész photographs Calder in his studio. (CF, photographs by André Kertész) June 22: Calder embarks for New York on the De Grasse, bringing Cirque Calder with him. During the voyage, he meets Edward Holton James and his daughter, Louisa. So once on board the De Grasse, I started walking the deck. I overtook an elderly man and a young lady. I could only see them from the back, so I reversed my steps the better to see them face on. Upon coming abreast of them the next time around, I said, “Good evening!” And the man said to his daughter, “There is one of them already!” He was Edward Holton James, my future father-in-law. She was Louisa. Her father had just taken her to Europe to mix with the young intellectual elite. All she met were concierges, doormen, cab drivers—and finally me … Her father had traveled with her to protect her, but he had a bad case of asthma on the boat and could not do his duty. (AAA, passport; Calder 1966, 101) Before August 28: Calder visits Louisa and her older sister, Mary, at Eastham on Cape Cod. Calder was a perfect guest. He mended everything in sight and kept us in gales of laughter all day long. (Calder 1966, 101; CF, Louisa to mother, August 29) 272

Before December 25: Calder creates his first formal mechanized sculpture, Goldfish Bowl (A00274) and presents it to his mother as a Christmas gift. For his father, he makes a wire fish (A19898). He made me a fish tank of brass wire, with two fish that wiggle as you turn a crank made also of wire. Waves are indicated along the top. For your Dad a large fish that is now hanging from the electric light. Peggy, it is remarkable. One wire beginning at his tail, running along the backbone to the head where the eyes and mouth are faultlessly placed. Then the wire loops around the back bone as it travels back to form the other half of the tail. This is hard to describe, but it is really wonderful as is the fish bowl in which the fishes bend as tho [sic] swimming. (Hayes 1977, 225–26) December 25: Calder performs Cirque Calder in the home of Aline Bernstein on Park Avenue. Noguchi is present, as is Thomas Wolfe, who later incorporates a wry fictionalized account of the event into his novel, You Can’t Go Home Again. (Calder 1966, 106-107; Hayes 1977, 226) Before December 28: At a party thrown by Walter Damrosch at NBC Studios, Calder approaches Aline Fruhauf, the cartoonist for the magazine Top Notes, wearing “a curiously wrought ornament which seemed to be a bee or dragonfly of gold filament, perched where a shirt stud should be (A21607). Suddenly, he reached in his pocket, brought out a paper and a pencil and began to caricature the cartoonist (A18905).” (”By Way of Mention,” 1929)

Alexander S.C. Rower

Fig. 7 Poster for circus performance on October 28, 1929. Linoleum cut with violet ink on paper. Calder Scrapbook, 1926–32, 72. Alexander Calder papers, 1926–1967, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

December 31: Calder performs Cirque Calder on New Year’s Eve at the home of Jack and Edith Straus on West Fifty-seventh Street, New York. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 142) 1930 Before January 27: Calder stays in the apartment of his friend Paul Nitze at 112 East Fortieth Street. At Nitze’s request, he performs Cirque Calder. (Calder 1966, 107; CF, Calder 1955–56, 110) January 17–March 2: Two works by Calder are exhibited at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) January 27–February 4: Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts, exhibits Wire Sculpture by Alexander Calder. Calder performs Cirque Calder for the faculty and students on January 31. (CF, exhibition file) March 10: Calder sails for Spain on the Spanish freighter Motomar. The ship docks briefly in Málaga, and Calder explores the town. Two days later, Calder debarks in Barcelona. I went to the Hotel Regina, in a little room up somewhere high. It was then I decided that I liked white walls and red tile flooring. . . . I tried to find Miró, but I guess he was away in the country. I went to a bullfight, and then on to Paris by train. (Calder 1966, 108–110) After March 10: Calder rents a studio at 7 Villa Brune. (Calder 1966, 110) May: Calder exhibits La Negresse (A00766) in 11e Salon de l’Araignée at Galerie G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) May 23: Calder casts twelve sculptures in bronze at the Fonderie Valsuani, Paris. “There is a fine bronze foundry at the end of Villa Brune––so I am going to delve into cire perdue.” (CF, Calder to parents, May 23) May 23–July 27: Calder receives an invitation from Rupert Fordham to sail to L’Île Rousse in Corsica. They visit Antoni and Calvi on the west coast. (Calder 1966, 110-112; CF, Calder to parents, May 23, July 27) August 6: While in Calvi, Calder collects fragments of ancient pottery and fashions the pieces into a necklace (A20412). I meant to write you a birthday letter two days ago, but I made you a necklace instead––having brought along pliers and wires, and found bits of things along the parapets of the citadel, to put into it . . . I have been making a lot more wire jewelry––and I think I’ll really do something with it, eventually. (CF, Calder to mother, August 6) September 10: Calder performs Cirque Calder at 7 Villa Brune. For seating, he invites spectators to bring their own boxes. (CF, project file) After September 12: Louisa James visits Calder in Paris. (CF, Louisa to Mother, September 7) October: In need of money to pay rent, Calder charges admission to performances of Cirque Calder. I bought planks, pinched some boxes, and made bleachers. I handled thirty people an evening on, I believe, four evenings. At the end of my professional run, the concierge came and said

the proprietor who lived in the front could not get to sleep on account of the cymbals. (Calder 1966, 113–14) October 14: On the advice of Frederick Kiesler, a Viennese architect, Calder invites Le Corbusier, Carl Einstein, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, and Theo Van Doesburg to a presentation of Cirque Calder at 7 Villa Brune. To avoid conflicts, Kiesler insists that Calder send a telegram inviting Van Doesburg for the following night. (Calder 1966, 112–13; AAA, circus poster) October 15: Van Doesburg and his wife, Pétro [Nelly], attend a performance of Cirque Calder. I got more of a reaction from Doesburg than I had from the whole gang the night before. (Calder 1966, 112–13; AAA, circus poster) Fall: Kiesler introduces Calder to composer Edgard Varèse, and Calder makes a wire portrait of him (A00259). Varèse, who feels that his own compositions resonate with Calder’s new abstract sculpture, becomes a frequent visitor to Calder’s studio. (Calder 1966, 125; CF, Calder 1955–56, 78) October: Accompanied by another American artist, William “Binks”

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Fig. 8 Necklace, 1930. Brass wire, ceramic, and cord, loop: 15 3⁄4 in. (40 cm). Calder Foundation, New York

ination, and humor which appeal to me very much and which make life colorful and worthwhile. He enjoys working and works hard, and thus ends the summary of his character. (CF, Louisa to mother, after November 6) Winter: Calder makes a gold ring to present to Louisa James. I had known a little jeweler in Paris, Bucci, and he had helped me make a gold ring— forerunner of an array of family jewelry—with a spiral on top and a helix for the finger. I thought this would do for a wedding ring. But Louisa merely called this one her “engagement ring” and we had to go to Waltham, near by, and purchase a wedding ring for two dollars. (Calder 1966, 116) December 2–January 20: Calder exhibits four wood sculptures, including Cow (A00233), in Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. (CF, exhibition file) December 17–22: Calder returns to New York on the Bremen (Calder 1966, 114; AAA, postcard, Wiser to Calder)

Einstein, Calder visits Mondrian’s studio at 26, rue de Départ. Already familiar with Mondrian’s geometric abstractions, Calder is deeply impressed by the studio environment: It was a very exciting room. Light came in from the left and from the right, and on the solid wall between the windows there were experimental stunts with colored rectangles of cardboard tacked on. Even the victrola, which had been some muddy color, was painted red. I suggested to Mondrian that perhaps it would be fun to make these rectangles oscillate. And he, with a very serious countenance, said: “No, it is not necessary, my painting is already very fast” . . . This one visit gave me a shock that started things. Though I had heard the word “modern” before, I did not consciously know or feel the term “abstract.” So now, at thirty two, I wanted to paint and work in the abstract. And for two weeks or so, I painted very modest abstractions. At the end of this, I reverted to plastic work which was still abstract. (Calder 1966, 113; CF, Calder 1955–56, 78) October 25–November 24: Calder exhibits nine works, including Le lanceur de poids (A00843) and Femme nue (A09280), at the Association Artistique les Surindépendants, Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) November: The American photojournalist Thérèse Bonney photographs Calder in his studio at 7 Villa Brune. (NYPL, photography collection) After November 6: Louisa James decides to marry Calder. I have just come home from a polo game with a not particularly entrancing young man, and I have decided that I am sick to death of going out with one person and another that don’t interest me. I am sick of it chiefly because the only person that amuses me and has amused me for the last year and a half, is Sandy. The only thing to do to my mind is to make it permanent and get married, and the sooner the better. . . . To me Sandy is a real person which seems to be a rare thing. He appreciates and enjoys the things in life that most people haven’t the sense to notice. He has ideals, ambition, and plenty of common sense, with great ability. He has tremendous originality, imag274

1931 January 1–15: Calder prints postcards to announce performances of Cirque Calder at 903 Seventh Avenue, New York. Five performances are given; each audience includes about thirty spectators. (AAA, circus announcement; The World, January 18) January 16: Calder performs Cirque Calder at the James’s home in Concord, Massachusetts. (Calder 1966, 115) January 17: Alexander Calder and Louisa James are married. The reverend who married us apologized for having missed the circus the night before. So I said: “But you are here for the circus today.” (Calder 1966, 115) Before February 1: The Calders sail for Europe on the American Farmer. They return to live in Calder’s studio at 7 Villa Brune. (Hayes 1977, 249–50; Calder 1966, 116) February: The Abstraction-Création group is founded; members include Jean Arp, Robert Delaunay, William “Binks” Einstein, Jean Hélion, Piet Mondrian, and Anton Pevsner. (Calder, 1966, 114) April 27–May 9: Calder’s abstract work is presented for the first time in the exhibition Alexander Calder: Volumes—Vecteurs—Densités; Dessins— Portraits, at Galerie Percier, Paris. Léger writes in the introduction to the catalogue: Eric Satie illustrated by Calder. Why not? ‘It’s serious without seeming to be.’ Neoplastician from the start, he believed in the absolute of two colored rectangles . . . Looking at these new works—transparent, objective, exact—I think of Satie, Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Brancusi, Arp—these unchallenged masters of unexpressed and silent beauty. Calder is in the same family. He is 100-percent American. Satie and Duchamp are 100-percent French. Where do they meet? (CF, exhibition file)

Alexander S.C. Rower

Fig. 9 Page from Abstraction-Création, Art non figuratif, no. 1, 1932. Calder Foundation, New York

other features. I think there is something in it that may be good. (CF, Calder to parents, July 12) August 4–September 11: The Calders visit Palma de Mallorca, staying at the Hotel Mediterraneo. They call on the Juncosas, Pilar Miró’s family. After a month in Paguera, they return to Paris. (CF, Calder to parents July 31, September 18; Calder 1966, 122–23) August: Harrison of Paris publishes Fables of Aesop, According to Sir Roger L’Estrange (A00377), containing fifty illustrations by Calder. (CF, project file) October 23–November 22: Calder exhibits two paintings and two sculptures in Association artistique les Surindépendants at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) October 29–30: Calder performs Cirque Calder in his studio, 14, rue de la Colonie. (FJM, Calder to Miró, 1931) Fall: I had been working on things with a little motion, some with more motion. I had quite a number of things that went round and round, driven by a small electric motor—some with no motor—some with a crank. (Calder 1966, 126)

April 27: Pablo Picasso arrives before the opening at Galerie Percier to preview the exhibition privately. He introduces himself to Calder. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 95) May 2: The Calders move into a three-story house at 14, rue de la Colonie. (Calder 1966, 121; Hayes 1977, 252–53; AAA, taxi receipt) May: Louisa buys a dog, a small briard mix. She and Calder name him Feathers because of his wispy hair. (Calder 1966, 121–22; CF, Calder to parents, c. June 16) End of May: Mary Reynolds is up from Villefranche for a few weeks, so we are seeing a bit of her and Marcel Duchamp. (CF, Calder to parents, c. June 5) June: Calder accepts an invitation to join Abstraction-Création. (Calder 1966, 114; CF, Calder to parents, July 1) July: Calder’s wire sculpture is included in an exhibition of Novembergruppe at Künstlerhaus, Berlin. (CF, exhibition file) Before July 12: Calder continues to expand the use of motion in his abstract sculpture. I felt that perhaps I was exactly a perfectionist: i.e. that who was I to decide that a thing should be just this way, or just that way—so I made one or 2 objects articulated, so that they could be in a number of positions. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 108) July 12: Calder writes his parents of his new work: I have been making a few new abstractions which have certain movements combined with their

Fall: Marcel Duchamp visits the studio at 14, rue de la Colonie again and sees Calder’s latest works. There was one motor-driven thing, with three elements (A13718). The thing had just been painted and was not quite dry yet. When he put his hands on it, the object seemed to please him, so he arranged for me to show in Marie Cuttoli’s Galerie Vignon, close to the Madeleine. I asked him what sort of a name I could give these things and he at once produced Mobile. In addition to something that moves, in French it also means motive. Duchamp also suggested that on my invitation card I make a drawing of the motor-driven object and print: CALDER/SES MOBILES. (Calder 1966, 127) November: Calder selects a sculpture (A08480) from among the works exhibited at Galerie Percier and donates it to the recently founded Miejskie Muzeum Historji i Sztuki (now known as the Museum Sztuki or Museum of New Art) in Lodz, Poland. The work is later lost during World War II. (Calder 1966, 118) November: Calder exhibits with Abstraction-Création at Porte de Versailles, Paris. He performs Cirque Calder. (CF, Calder to parents, July 1, Lipman 1976, 331; Calder 1966, 118–21) Mid-November: The Calders visit Port-Blanc in the Côte d’Armor, Bretagne. (Calder 1966, 125–26; CF, Louisa to Mother, November 30) 1932 Calder publishes “Comment réaliser l’art?” for the first issue of Abstraction-Création, Art non figuratif. Out of volumes, motion, spaces bounded by the great space, the universe. Out of different masses, tight, heavy, middling—indicated by variations of size or color—directional line— vectors which represent speeds, velocities, accelerations, forces, etc. . . .— 275

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Fig. 10 Invitation to Calder: ses mobiles, Galerie Vignon, February 12-29, 1932. Letterpress, 5 5⁄8 x 4 5⁄16 in. (12.7 x 10.2 cm). Calder Foundation, New York

February 7–21: Calder exhibits in The Fifth Annual Exhibition of Modern French Painting at The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago. (CF, exhibition file) February 12–29: Calder: ses mobiles is held at Galerie Vignon, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) After February 12: In response to Duchamp’s term “mobile,” Arp asks, Well, what were those things you did last year [for Percier’s]—stabiles? Calder adopts “stabile” to refer to his static works. (Calder 1966, 130) February 20–22: Calder performs Cirque Calder at his studio in Paris. (AAA, circus poster) March 8: Calder writes the statement “Que ça bouge: À propos des sculptures mobiles.” The various objects of the universe may be constant at times, but their reciprocal relationships always vary. There are environments that appear to remain fixed whilst there are small occurrences that take place at a great speed across them. This appears so only because one sees nothing but the mobility of the small occurrences. We notice the movement of automobiles and other beings in the street, but we do not notice the turning of the earth. We believe that automobiles go at a great speed on a fixed ground; yet the speed of the earth’s rotation at the equator is 40,000 km every 24 hours. As truly serious art must follow the greater laws, and not only appearance, I try to put all the elements in motion in my mobile sculptures. It is a matter of harmonizing these movements, thus arriving at a new possibility for beauty. (CF, unpublished manuscript, 1932)

these directions making between them meaningful angles, and senses, together defining one big conclusion or many. Spaces, volumes, suggested by the smallest means in contrast to their mass, or even including them, juxtaposed, pierced by vectors, crossed by speeds. Nothing at all of this is fixed. Each element able to move, to stir, to oscillate, to come and go in its relationships with the other elements in its universe. It must not be just a fleeting moment but a physical bond between the varying events in life. Not extractions, But abstractions Abstractions that are like nothing in life except in their manner of reacting. (Calder, Abstraction-Création, Art non figuratif, 1932) January 15–28: Calder exhibits drawings, including Untitled (Elephants) (A16085), in Exposition de dessins at Galerie Vignon, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) January 15–February 1: Calder exhibits two works, including Untitled (A13687), in 1940 at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) 276

March 12: In a letter to Kiesler, Calder describes the reaction to his mobiles. We had a lot of visitors—Léger, Picasso, Carl Einstein, Binks Einstein, Petro van Doesburg, Cocteau, Roux, etc.—who all were enthusiastic about ‘abstract sculptures which move’ (toy elec. motors being used). There was only one dissenter . . . that was Mondrian. He said they weren’t fast enough, and when I stepped on the gas, he said they still weren’t fast enough, so I said I’d make one especially fast, to please him, and then he said that that wouldn’t be fast enough—because the whole thing ought to be still. Now I feel that beauty of motion is a very real thing—unrelated to any definite machinery. Whether I’ve achieved it is, of course, another question. (CF, Calder to Kiesler, March 12) May: In preparation for their departure from Antwerp to New York on a Belgian freighter, the Calders rent their house to Gabrielle Buffet, the former wife of Francis Picabia. (Calder 1966, 136–37) May 9: Calder introduces himself in writing to American art critic James Johnson Sweeney. About 3 or 4 months [ago] M. Fernand Léger came to my house in Paris to see my ‘mobiles’—abstract sculptures which move—and said he would like to bring you to have a look at them too . . I am exposing a few of these ‘mobiles’ at the Julien Levy Gallery 602 Madison Ave N.Y.C. and would be very pleased if you would come and see them. (JJS, Calder to Sweeney, May 9)

Alexander S.C. Rower

Fig. 11 Poster for circus performances February 20–22, 1932. Calder Foundation, New York

After September 12: The Calders and Mirós visit Cambrils and Tarragona. (Calder 1966, 139) Before September 29: The Calders return to Barcelona and visit Gaudi’s cathedral. Invited by the Amics de l’Art Nou, Calder performs Cirque Calder in the hall of the Grup d’Arquitects i Tecnics Catalans per al Progres de l’Arquitectura Contemporania (GATCPAC). Shortly thereafter, the Calders return to Paris. (Calder 1966, 140–41; Gasch 1932) 1933 January 19–31: Calder’s sculptures are included in the group exhibition Première série, organized by the Association Artistique AbstractionCréation, Paris. (CF, exhibition file) January 29–30: The Calders take a train from Paris to Madrid, where they visit the Museo del Prado. (CF, Calder to Peggy, February 2)

May 12–June 11: Calder: Mobiles, Abstract Sculptures is held at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York. The exhibition announcement reprints Léger’s introduction to the Percier catalogue. (CF, exhibition file; New York Times, May 13) June 11: Before a group of reporters visiting his exhibition at Julien Levy Gallery, Calder demonstrates the motion in Small Black Panel (A15258). This has no utility and no meaning. It is simply beautiful. It has great emotional effect if you understand it. Of course if it meant anything it would be easier to understand but it would not be worthwhile. (New York WorldTelegram, June 11) Before June 16: The Calders visit Louisa’s parents in Concord. Calder performs Cirque Calder at the James’s home. (The Concord Herald, June 16) After June 16: The Calders visit Calder’s parents in Richmond, Massachusetts. Calder performs Cirque Calder in an old barn that Stirling uses as a studio. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 146) Before September 10: The Calders arrive in Barcelona after a fourteenday passage on the Cabo Tortosa, Garcia and Díaz Spanish line. Following a stop in Málaga, they take a train from Barcelona to Tarragona. (Calder 1966, 138-140; FJM, Calder to Miró, July 19) September 12: The Calders arrive at the Miró farm in Montroig for an eight- to ten-day visit. During their stay, Calder performs Cirque Calder for the Mirós, their farmhands, and their neighbors. Miró recalls the event: He came to Montroig and brought the circus figures, on which he never stopped working. We organized a presentation for the local farmers who were very pleased with the spectacle of the wire performers. Later the Cirque was presented in galleries, but there in Montroig it was really a performance for the people. (Calder 1966, 139; Lanchner 1993, 330; Miró 1977, 114–15)

February 1–2: Works by Calder are presented at the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias, Residencia de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Madrid. Calder also performs Cirque Calder for the students. (AAA, Circus program; CF, Louisa to Mother, February 11) February 11–12: Calder performs Cirque Calder in Barcelona. (CF, Louisa to Mother, February 11) February 13: Miró arranges for an exhibition of drawings and sculpture by Calder at the Galería Syra, Barcelona. (CF, Louisa to Mother, December 1932, February 11) February 16: The Calders travel to Rome to visit Louisa’s godmother, “Tanta” Bullard. (CF, Louisa to Mother, December 1932, February 11) March 10: The Calders return to Paris. (FJM, Calder to Miró, March 15) Spring: Calder constructs an interactive “performance” sculpture (A23051). I had a small ballet-object, built on a table with pulleys at the top of a frame. It was possible to move coloured discs across the rectangle, or fluttering pennants, or cones; to make them dance, or even have battles between them. Some of them had large, simple, majestic movements; others were small and agitated. (Calder 1937, 64; CF, Calder to Sweeney July 19, 1934) May 16–18: Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris exhibits Présentation des oeuvres récentes de Calder. Reviewing the exhibition, Paul Recht writes: The liberty of some of the ensembles is absolutely disconcerting: we see two balls, one little and one big, in turn fixed to wires of very different lengths that are themselves fixed to the two extremities of a balancing arm hung above the ground. The big ball is animated by a pendular and rotary movement; it leads the little one on unexpected evolutions that multiply by impact upon surrounding objects. They are extraordinary visual variations on the theme of calamity, by the means of gravity and centrifugal force. (CF, exhibition file; Recht 1933)

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Fig. 12 Hugo P. Herdeg (1909–1953), Calder next to the Mercury Fountain commissioned for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. Behind him is Picasso’s Guernica. Calder Foundation, New York

June 9–24: Arp, Calder, Hélion, Miró, Pevsner, et Seligmann is presented at Galerie Pierre, Paris; Anatole Jakovski writes the text for the catalogue. At Galerie Pierre, Calder meets Sweeney, perhaps for the first time. Sweeney becomes an avid proponent of Calder’s work. (Calder 1966, 148; CF, exhibition file; Lipman 1976, 331) Before June 22: Miró stays with the Calders at 14, rue de la Colonie while he prepares for his own Exposition surréaliste at Galerie Pierre Colle. (Lanchner 1993, 330–31, 439) June 24: Miró presents the Calders with a large blue painting as a goingaway present. (Lanchner 1993, 330–31; CF, object file) End of June–July: Calder and Louisa give up their house in Paris and return to New York in the company of Jean Hélion. There were so many articles in the European press about war preparations that we thought we had better head for home. (Calder 1966, 143–44) The Calders returned to the United States to reestablish themselves in New York, where Calder rented a vacant storefront to use as a studio. They also purchased an eighteenth-century farm in Connecticut, and Calder converted the old icehouse into a modest dirt-floored studio. The Calders’ first daughter, Sandra, was born in 1935, and a second daughter, Mary, followed in 1939. In the catalogue for his 1933 exhibition Modern Painting and Sculpture, held at the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts—his first after returning to the United States—Calder described his work: “Why not plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translatory or rotary motion but several motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing to make a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions.” The 1930s were the most fertile and expansive period of Calder’s career. He continued the work he had begun in Paris by refining and adapting the idea of an abstract composition in motion. This idea developed from repeating movement into variable movement, where the elements are susceptible to environmental interaction. Calder began his association with the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York with his first show there in 1934. James Johnson Sweeney, who had become a close friend, wrote the catalogue's preface. In 1937, Calder completed Devil Fish, his first stabile enlarged from a model, a precursor to later monumental works. That same year the Calders returned to Europe for an extended stay. While in Paris, Calder received a commission to make Mercury Fountain, exhibited with Picasso’s Guernica and Miró’s The Reaper, in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair. Supplied with mercury from the city of Almadén, Calder’s fountain was overtly political, symbolizing resistance to Francisco Franco’s fascism. The first retrospective of Calder’s work was held in 1938 at the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. A second, major retrospective, curated by Sweeney in collaboration with Marcel Duchamp, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1943. 278

During World War II, when metal was in short supply, Calder turned to wood, plaster, recycled materials, and found objects as sculptural media. In keeping with his wartime economy, Calder made a series of small-scale works, many out of scraps of metal trimmed while making larger pieces. While visiting Calder’s studio in 1945, Duchamp became intrigued by these small works. Inspired by their portability, he arranged an exhibition for Calder at Galerie Louis Carré in Paris. This important show was held the following year, and Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his famous essay on Calder’s mobiles for the exhibition catalogue. In 1953–54, the Calders spent a year in France. They visited their friend Jean Davidson in the town of Saché in the Loire Valley and acquired a house and studio from him. In 1962, Calder built a large studio nearby, and the Calders began to spend much of the year in Saché. Calder’s artistic talents were renowned worldwide by the 1960s. A retrospective of his work opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1964 and traveled to the Musée national d’art moderne in Paris. In 1966, Calder published his autobiography. During his lifetime, Calder received more than two hundred and fifty public and private commissions. He was the subject of more than one hundred monographic museum exhibitions and nearly two hundred gallery shows. In 1976, he attended the opening of a huge retrospective of his work, Calder’s Universe, which filled much of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Just a few weeks later, Calder died at the age of seventyeight, ending one of the most prolific and innovative artistic careers of the twentieth century.