-
Artworks
Alexander Calder United States, 1898-1976
Untitled, c. 1968Sheet metal, wire and paint43.8 by 68.6 by 40.6 cm (17¼ by 27 by 16 in.)Inscribed with the artist's monogram 'CA' (on the base)66480© 2021 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York$1,900,000Further images
Executed circa 1968. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A23343. By 1931, Alexander Calder began to create suspended sculptures which...Executed circa 1968. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A23343.
By 1931, Alexander Calder began to create suspended sculptures which Marcel Duchamp called “mobiles.” A year later the artist created his first stationary “stabile” sculpture as Jean Arp dubbed them. While Calder’s mobiles carved into space by swaying with changes in air flow and thus moving into new configurations, the artist’s stabiles remained static and grounded. Untitled (1963) is a unique combination of both sculptural types–while firmly tethered and weighty at the base, the present work simultaneously appears to levitate. A curvaceous three-legged red base secures the sculpture to the ground, inviting a sense of downward motion. At the same time, the branches of metal that sprout above and dangle thin, white metal discs, add a playful weightlessness that draws viewers’ attention upward. This contrast is Calder’s genius and greatest contribution to the medium of sculpture.
Provenance
Jean Davidson, United States
Private Collection, France (gift from the above in 1969; sale: Christie's Paris, May 30, 2007, lot 324)
Private Collection, Europe (acquired at the above sale; sale: Sotheby's New York, May 16, 2018, lot 17)
Private Collection
