We are getting used to commercial galleries putting on museum quality shows – think of Gagosian’s Picasso show a few years ago, and Fontana in New York last year, or White Cube’s Chuck Close that just closed in Bermondsey. The current exhibition at Pace’s London venue “Calder after the War” is no different. This is the second of a series of historical exhibitions focusing on seminal moments in Calder’s career, following “Calder 1941” at Pace New York in 2011. Nicely curated, the London exhibition displays Calder’s different mobiles, standing mobiles, small maquettes and much less familiar gouaches and watercolors from 1945 to 1949. Some works are grouped together on circular white plinths, with each distinctive group balancing each other as one walks through the exhibition. Overall the exhibition has a wonderful rhythm to itself. Yes the works on paper displayed in the upstairs gallery may not be the strongest of Calder’s production but they do add an extra flavor, and refer to Calder’s dear friend Joan Miro, another playful optimist.
Piet Mondrian, “Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow” 1930
Calder’s visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio in 1930 dramatically changed his artistic path. Looking at Mondrian’s famous geometric abstract works in range of primary colors, he wondered, “How fine it would be if everything moved, why must art be static”. So he introduced movement to sculpture, also sense of chance as his mobile works allowed sculptural parts to move independently by nature and chance. This groundbreaking innovation was termed the “mobile” by Marcel Duchamp, and successively synthesized European Abstraction, Surrealism and Dada. It also combined Calder’s sense of play with his interest in space, chance and surprise, movement, toys, and engineering.
During the World War II, Calder’s work focused on carved wood constructions and bronzes, partly due to the shortage of supply sheet aluminum but mostly because of him reconsidering his process during wartime. 40s and 50s were a remarkably productive for Calder, and he had a major retrospective show at MoMA in 1943. Duchamp planned a Calder show at Galerie Louis Carre in Paris in 1948, and Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his famous essay on Calder’s mobiles for this exhibition’s catalogue. The following year, he made his largest mobile to date, “International Mobile” for the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Third International Exhibition of Sculpture. Even the most expensive Calder sold at auction comes from this period, “Lily of Force” 1946 which went for $18.5million at Christie’s in May 2012.
“Lily of Force” 1945
At the Pace show, we see Calder at his best, as with the allies claiming victory Calder returned back to his main focus: mobiles, stabiles, and standing mobiles. There are about 50 works, including masterpieces such as “Baby Flat Top” (1946), “Little Parasite” (1947), and “Blue Feather” (c. 1948). One fun piece is “Louisa’s 43rd Birthday Present” (1948), which is a collection of five miniature standing mobiles and the felt-lined cigar box that Calder created to store them. Do you also notice his playful titles? In line with this playfulness, Pace Gallery had the Rockabellas, a swing jive band perform at the exhibition preview. Here are more photos.
