| | | | Alexander Calder: Modern from the StartEdited with text by Cara Manes. Text by Alexander Calder, Alexander S. C. Rower.
 On Alexander Calder’s fruitful, creative and enduring relationship with MoMA, from the early wire sculptures to late abstractionsAlexander 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 REVIEWSReuters 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. |
|  | Free Shipping UPS GROUND IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.
FOR CONSUMER ONLINE ORDERS | |
| | FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/22/2021 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 | |  | CAHIERS D'ARTISBN: 9782851173188
USD $75.00 | CAN $103Pub Date: 3/28/2023
Forthcoming
|
|  | THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORKISBN: 9781633451162
USD $45.00 | CAN $63Pub Date: 3/2/2021
Active | In stock
|
|  | PACE PUBLISHINGISBN: 9781948701259
USD $70.00 | CAN $98 UK £ 62Pub Date: 6/2/2020
Active | In stock
|
|  | HAUSER & WIRTH PUBLISHERSISBN: 9783906915364
USD $50.00 | CAN $69.95Pub Date: 7/23/2019
Active | In stock
|
|  | HAUSER & WIRTH PUBLISHERSISBN: 9783906915258
USD $40.00 | CAN $62Pub Date: 9/25/2018
Active | In stock
|
|  | HAUSER & WIRTH PUBLISHERSISBN: 9783906915036
USD $50.00 | CAN $67.5Pub Date: 1/23/2018
Active | In stock
|
|  | HATJE CANTZISBN: 9783775741279
USD $85.00 | CAN $112.5Pub Date: 8/23/2016
Active | In stock
|
|  | DOMINIQUE LéVYISBN: 9780986060656
USD $60.00 | CAN $79 UK £ 53Pub Date: 7/26/2016
Active | In stock
|
|  | HATJE CANTZISBN: 9783775740524
USD $95.00 | CAN $127.5Pub Date: 2/23/2016
Active | In stock
|
|  | CAHIERS D'ARTISBN: 9782851171818
USD $80.00 | CAN $110Pub Date: 10/20/2015
Active | In stock
|
|  | CAHIERS D'ART/CALDER FOUNDATIONISBN: 9782851171016
USD $90.00 | CAN $128Pub Date: 10/21/2014
Active | In stock
|
|
|
| |
