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PUBLISHER
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 9 x 10.5 in. / 144 pgs / 113 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2021 p. 31   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781633451162 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CAD $63.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
NA ONLY

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

New York, NY
The Museum of Modern Art, 03/14/21–08/07/21

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THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK

Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start

Edited with text by Cara Manes. Text by Alexander Calder, Alexander S. C. Rower.

Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start

On Alexander Calder’s fruitful, creative and enduring relationship with MoMA, from the early wire sculptures to late abstractions

Alexander Calder’s work first appeared in the Museum of Modern Art’s galleries in 1930, in the exhibition Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans. Over the next decades the artist’s connection with the Museum would be deep, productive and mutually beneficial. Calder cultivated friendships and working relationships with notable figures, including Alfred H. Barr Jr., the Museum’s founding director, and James Johnson Sweeney, with whom he collaborated on his expansive retrospective exhibition in 1943. His work is imprinted on MoMA’s early history, not only for its material and conceptual innovation but also for its presence at significant moments, such as a mobile made to hang over the lobby’s grand staircase on the occasion of the new Goodwin and Stone building (Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, which hangs there to this day); an elaborate candelabra to adorn the tables at a celebratory anniversary event; and a sculpture to fly off a flagpole to advertise the landmark exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art.

Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start celebrates this extraordinarily fertile relationship between an institution and an artist who was both an important creative partner and, with his magnificent gift of 19 works in 1966, a major donor. Through MoMA, Calder came to be known as a pioneer of modern sculpture, and through Calder, MoMA came to understand itself as an American museum of modern art.

After studying engineering, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) moved to Paris in the late 1920s, where he found himself at the center of the city’s artistic avant-garde. There, he developed his Cirque Calder, a performance artwork comprising dozens of miniature handmade objects, and a group of standalone figurative works in wire. Turning toward abstraction in 1930, Calder invented the mobile—an abstract sculpture made of independent parts that incorporate natural or mechanical movement. He would continue to explore the possibilities of this visual language for the rest of his career, eventually shifting to monumental constructions and public works.


Alexander Calder installing the exhibition Alexander Calder: Sculptures and Constructions, 1943. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. Artwork by Alexander Calder © 2021 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Reuters

Soren Larson

Offers new insight into the resourceful and creative artist.

Patron

Doug King

Calder exemplifies the free spirit in modern sculpture... this book ... show[s] the earliest wire sculptures that helped launch Calder’s career through his exploration into animated and monumental works.

Wall Street Journal

Lance Esplund

A striking [book] celebrates the sculptor and his long association with the museum, in work that ranges from his inventive jewelry to his massive mobiles.

Mommy Poppins

Diana Kim

Incorporate[d] motion, repurposed objects, and a sense of whimsy in his works...

Vanity Fair

Allison Schaller

Released in conjunction with MoMA’s retrospective, 'Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start' is an in-depth and endearing look at the relationship between the museum and one of the greatest American artists of all time. His work first appeared in the museum in 1930, just 1 year after its founding, under the direction of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and has been shown regularly since; one of the most fruitful institution/artist relationships on record.

Our Town

Val Castronovo

With virus fears spiraling again, it seems like there’s no better time to enter Calder’s universe and be spirited away.

Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/22/2021

Thinking of Alexander Calder, born OTD 1898

Thinking of Alexander Calder, born OTD 1898

This 1943 publicity photo of Alexander Calder during the installation of Alexander Calder (September 29, 1943–January 16, 1944) at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, is reproduced from Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start, published to accompany the exhibition currently on view at MoMA. Cara Manes writes, "Calder's sculptures … depend on a viewer's perception of their many elements to achieve their full expression: they contain infinite forms, none of them final. His is an aesthetic of adjustment, of a body to an object, an object to a body, and an object to itself and to its surroundings. In time, or as Calder wrote, with 'familiarization,' some of a given work's infinite possible expressions will emerge. The longer we spend with his work, the more we see, as physical interventions and their perceptions occur in their own time, with accumulating impact. In precisely the same manner that the work implies no fixed viewpoint, achieves no final form, the Calder story, even laid out in a chronological series of events, eludes simple telling. Which seems to be how the artist wanted it: The admission of approximation is necessary, for one cannot hope to be absolute in his precision. He cannot see, or even conceive of a thing from all possible points of view, simultaneously. While he perfects the front, the side, or rear may be weak; then while he strengthens the other façade he may be weakening that originally the best. There is no end to this. To finish the work he must approximate." continue to blog


ALEXANDER CALDER MONOGRAPHS + ARTIST'S BOOKS

Calder: Un effet du japonais

CALDER: UN EFFET DU JAPONAIS

Pace Publishing

ISBN: 9781948701549
USD $50.00
| CAD $71 UK £ 45

Pub Date: 9/17/2024
Active | In stock


Calder: Sculpting Time

CALDER: SCULPTING TIME

Silvana Editoriale

ISBN: 9788836657827
USD $50.00
| CAD $71

Pub Date: 10/15/2024
Active | In stock


Calder Chess

CALDER CHESS

Cahiers d'Art

ISBN: 9782851173188
USD $120.00
| CAD $180

Pub Date: 6/3/2025
Forthcoming


Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start

ALEXANDER CALDER: MODERN FROM THE START

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

ISBN: 9781633451162
USD $45.00
| CAD $63

Pub Date: 3/2/2021
Active | Out of stock


Calder: Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere

CALDER: SMALL SPHERE AND HEAVY SPHERE

Pace Publishing

ISBN: 9781948701259
USD $70.00
| CAD $98 UK £ 62

Pub Date: 6/2/2020
Active | Out of stock


Calder: Nonspace

CALDER: NONSPACE

Hauser & Wirth Publishers

ISBN: 9783906915364
USD $50.00
| CAD $69.95

Pub Date: 7/23/2019
Active | In stock


Alexander Calder: From the Stony River to the Sky

ALEXANDER CALDER: FROM THE STONY RIVER TO THE SKY

Hauser & Wirth Publishers

ISBN: 9783906915258
USD $40.00
| CAD $62

Pub Date: 9/25/2018
Active | In stock


Alexander Calder / David Smith

ALEXANDER CALDER / DAVID SMITH

Hauser & Wirth Publishers

ISBN: 9783906915036
USD $50.00
| CAD $67.5

Pub Date: 1/23/2018
Active | Out of stock


Alexander Calder & Fischli / Weiss

ALEXANDER CALDER & FISCHLI / WEISS

Hatje Cantz

ISBN: 9783775741279
USD $85.00
| CAD $112.5

Pub Date: 8/23/2016
Active | Out of stock


Alexander Calder: Multum in Parvo

ALEXANDER CALDER: MULTUM IN PARVO

Dominique Lévy

ISBN: 9780986060656
USD $60.00
| CAD $79 UK £ 53

Pub Date: 7/26/2016
Active | In stock


Transparence: Calder Picabia

TRANSPARENCE: CALDER PICABIA

Hatje Cantz

ISBN: 9783775740524
USD $95.00
| CAD $127.5

Pub Date: 2/23/2016
Active | In stock


Cahiers d'Art: Calder in France

CAHIERS D'ART: CALDER IN FRANCE

Cahiers d'Art

ISBN: 9782851171818
USD $80.00
| CAD $110

Pub Date: 10/20/2015
Active | In stock


Calder by Matter

CALDER BY MATTER

Cahiers d'Art/Calder Foundation

ISBN: 9782851171016
USD $90.00
| CAD $128

Pub Date: 10/21/2014
Active | Out of stock