CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/16/2021

'Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start' is on view now at MoMA

"A Universe" (1934) 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."

IMAGE CREDIT: Alexander Calder. A Universe. 1934. Painted iron pipe, steel wire, motor, and wood with string. 40 1/2 x 30 x 29″ (102.9 x 76.2 x 73.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (by exchange). © 2021 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York