Product Description

In 1926, Alexander Calder (1898-1976) moved from New York to Paris and began to use time and motion as 'materials' for animating line and space. Calder's years in Paris - an understudied part of the artist's career - is the focus of this marvellous publication. A team of international scholars discusses Calder's many innovations of this period, chief among them his abstract, motorized, and mobile works. They analyze the extended cast of Calder's animated Circus, made in Paris between 1926 and 1931, and include previously unpublished photographs by Brassaï and Kertesz of Calder and this beloved performative sculpture. The essays critically explore the intellectual, cultural, and artistic milieu of Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the contexts of Calder's friendships with Miró, Mondrian, Duchamp, and Man Ray, among others. What emerges in this fascinating book is a nuanced and detailed understanding of how Calder's distinctive career first took flight.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #329402 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 302 pages

About the Author
Joan Simon is curator at large for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. She is the author of William Wegman (Yale), among many other publications on contemporary artists. Brigitte Léal is curator of historic collections at the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and the author of many books on modern art.