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Home>Tower 2: Alexander Calder

# Tower 2: Alexander Calder

Perhaps no artist has a larger presence at the National Gallery of Art than Alexander Calder. His monumental mobile, commissioned for the opening of the East Building, has become nearly as iconic as the building itself. A part of the East Building renovation and expansion, the Gallery’s Tower 2 galleries boast the world’s largest display of works by Alexander Calder with more than 40 sculptures and paintings, spanning the late 1920s through 1976, including 19 long-term loans from the Calder Foundation.

*Audio***LECTURE: CALDER TOWER**February 26, 2017

Alexander S. C. Rower, Calder’s grandson and president, Calder Foundation, in conversation with Harry Cooper, curator and head, department of modern art, National Gallery of Art

*This program is coordinated with the Calder Foundation.*

After a 1930 visit to the studio of Piet Mondrian (whose work is on view on the Upper Level), Calder was inspired to create a series of oil paintings, seven of which are in the Tower installation. Calder was impressed not by the Dutch artist’s paintings but by the total studio environment he had designed. Preceding Calder’s invention of the mobile, these paintings are remarkable representations of his first venture into abstraction and do not resemble anything else within Calder’s oeuvre.

In fall 1931, Marcel Duchamp paid a visit to Calder’s studio in Paris to see the younger artist’s latest works: abstract, motorized sculptures in wire and wood, which Duchamp famously dubbed “mobiles,” referring to both “motion” and “motive” in French. In summer 1934, just a year after moving to Roxbury, Connecticut, Calder made his first standing mobiles for the outdoors, prompting further development of monumental works. As Calder recounted in 1937, “I have made a number of things for the open air. All of them react to . . . the wind, and are like a sailing vessel in that they react best to one kind of breeze.” Other standing mobiles on view, intended for display indoors, include *Small Feathers* (1931), *Little Spider* (c. 1940), *Rat *(1948), and *Four White Petals* (1960).

In the mid-1930s, in addition to developing his classic mobiles—many of which are dramatically presented in the Tower—Calder began to work on frames and panels that explored the concept of three-dimensional paintings in motion. Instigated by either natural forces or human intervention, movement of these compositions results in flashes of forms and colors, a complex choreography of elements that blurs the line between circumstance and permanence. *Red Panel* (1936) constitutes Calder’s largest “painting in motion.” The installation also includes *Finny Fish* (1948), which is made of wire, glass, a spoon, and a sardine-tin opener, among other objects. Several impressive “stabiles” are also on display, including *Ruby-Eyed* (1936) and *Sphere Pierced by Cylinders* (1939), as well as “standing mobiles” such as *La vache* (1970) and *Crinkly Taureau* (1970).

Another highlight, on loan from the Foundation, is *Eucalyptus* (1940), a majestic hanging mobile that exemplifies Calder’s mature vocabulary. With a large, surreal element hanging in palpable tension with the floor, *Eucalyptus* premiered in Calder’s 1940 exhibition at Pierre Matisse Gallery and went on to be included in nearly all of the major exhibitions staged during the artist’s life.

In addition to the works in the Tower 2 gallery and the atrium mobile, three Calder sculptures can be found around the Gallery’s campus: *Obus* (1972) was recently installed in the West Concourse Gallery; *Tom’s* (1974), on loan from the Calder Foundation, is on view outside the 7th Street entrance; and another loan from the Foundation, *Cheval Rouge* (1974), is installed in the Sculpture Garden.

 

To view an enlargement, click the images below.

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Calder, Alexander, *Rearing Stallion*, c. 1928, wire and painted wood, overall: 57.8 x 34.3 x 24.8 cm (22 3/4 x 13 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.), Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1996.120.22

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Cow*, 1929, brass and copper wire, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996.120.11

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Aztec Josephine Baker*, c. 1929, wire, overall: 134.6 x 25.4 x 22.9 cm (53 x 10 x 9 in.), Calder Foundation, New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York; Mary Calder Rower Bequest, 2011 © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York; Mary Calder Rower Bequest, 2011 © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1930, oil on canvas, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Small Feathers*, 1931, wire, wood, lead, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tom Powel © Tom Powel Imaging

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Red Panel*, 1936, plywood, sheet metal, tubing, rod, wood, wire, string, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled (The McCausland Mobile)*, 1937, painted sheet metal, painted wood, wire, and string, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996.120.19

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Sphere Pierced by Cylinders*, 1939, wire and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tom Powel © Tom Powel Imaging

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Little Spider*, c. 1940, painted sheet metal and wire, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1996.120.18

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Eucalyptus*, 1940, sheet metal, wire, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York; Gift of Andréa Davidson, Shawn Davidson, Alexander S. C. Rower, and Holton Rower, 2010 © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tom Powel © Tom Powel Imaging

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled (The Constellation Mobile)*, 1941, painted wire, wood, and painted wood, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996.120.7

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled (The Wood Mobile)*, 1943, wood and wire, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996.120.30

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Vertical Constellation with Bomb*, 1943, painted steel wire, painted wood, and wood, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1996.120.8

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder,*The Big Ear*, 1943, sheet metal, bolts, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *1 Red, 4 Black plus X White*, 1947, sheet metal, wire, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York  © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Finny Fish*, 1948, painted steel rod, painted steel wire, glass, and objects, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1996.120.15

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Rat*, 1948, sheet metal, lead, wire, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Louisa's 43rd Birthday Present*, 1948, sheet metal, wood, wire, felt, cigar box, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tom Powel © Tom Powel Imaging

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Cascading Flowers*, 1949, painted metal, painted wire, and wire, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996.120.5

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Tower with Orange Band*, 1951, sheet metal, wire, wood, thread, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Tower with Pinwheel*, 1951, painted sheet metal, painted wire, wood, and string, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1996.120.25

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Triple Gong*, 1951, painted steel, painted wire, and brass, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996.120.27

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Descending Spines*, 1956, sheet metal, wire, and paint, Calder Foundation, New York © 2016 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Stalsworth/Blanc

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Black, White, and Ten Red*, 1957, painted sheet metal and wire, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1996.120.3

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *La Vache*, 1970, sheet metal, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1991.7.7

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Crinkly Taureau*, 1970, sheet metal, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art © 2000, Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1991.7.6

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Crinkly Worm*, 1971, sheet metal, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1991.7.10

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Red and Yellow Bull with Blue Head*, 1971, sheet metal, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1991.7.11

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Black Camel with Blue Head and Red Tongue*, 1971, sheet metal, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1991.7.13

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Blue Elephant with Red Ears*, 1971, painted metal, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2014.18.5

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Model for East Building Mobile*, 1972, painted aluminum and steel wire, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1975.114.1

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Untitled*, 1976, aluminum and steel, National Gallery of Art, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 1977.76.1

Tower 2: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder, *Les Flèches*, 1976, sheet metal, Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art © 2000 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 1991.7.15

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