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Current Exhibitions

Paintings of Dorothy Hood
March 18 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Sir Winston Churchill: Making Art, Making History
February 20 - May 31, 2024
Virtual
Ansel Adams: Affirmation of Life
December 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Picasso: Beyond the Canvas
October 4, 2023 - April 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
No Other Land: A Century of American Landscapes
September 21, 2023 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Art of the American West: A Prominent Collection
August 24, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Alexander Calder: Shaping a Primary Universe
August 23, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Andy Warhol: All is Pretty
August 17, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Jackson Hole, WY
Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Modern Art, Modern Friendship
July 13, 2023 - April 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Florals for Spring, Groundbreaking
May 8, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
First Circle: Circles in Art
February 14, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Your Heart’s Blood: Intersections of Art and Literature
September 12, 2022 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Meeting Life: N.C. Wyeth and the MetLife Murals
July 18, 2022 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Andy Warhol Polaroids: Wicked Wonders
December 13, 2021 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA

Archived Exhibitions

2024

Discovering Creativity: American Art Masters
January 10 - March 17, 2024
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens - West Palm Beach, FL

2023

Figurative Masters of the Americas
January 4 - February 12, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2022

Abstract Expressionism: Transcending the Radical
January 12, 2022 - January 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley: Modern Minds
February 1, 2022 - February 28, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
My Own Skin: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
June 16 - December 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
N.C. Wyeth: A Decade of Painting
September 29, 2022 - March 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2021

It Was Acceptable in the 80s
April 27, 2021 - August 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Elaine and Willem de Kooning: Painting in the Light
August 3, 2021 - January 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
James Rosenquist: Potent Pop
June 7, 2021 - January 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2019

Paul Jenkins: Coloring the Phenomenal
December 27, 2019 - March 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2018

N.C. Wyeth: Paintings and Illustrations
February 1 - May 31, 2018
Palm Desert, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
March 21 - May 30, 2018
Palm Desert, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
June 1 - July 27, 2018
San Francisco, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
August 1 - September 16, 2018
Jackson Hole, WY
de Kooning x de Kooning
November 8, 2018 - February 28, 2019
New York, NY

History

Alexander Calder is the artist who changed the way we think about sculpture. But he is also the artist whose creations reflect his reputation as a beloved, decent human being who continually sought to express fun and humor. Early awareness of that remarkable character proved to be the elaborate contraption he fashioned from metal wires, wood, cork, cloth, and myriad found materials and the performances he staged while in Paris between 1926 and 1931. That menagerie of Big Top Circus performers has come to be known as the earliest example of art as performance. He moved around on the floor catlike for a man his size and girth and operated cranks and pullies that activated trapeze artists, acrobats, bareback riders, and sundry clowns, trained dogs, and a ringmaster. Accompanied by music from a Victrola, he roared like a lion, dropped chestnuts behind the performing elephant and engaged a scoop to pick up the faux poop and led these figures through their elaborate paces as unselfconsciously as a ten-year-old fighting the Battle of Waterloo with toy soldiers and performing for no one but himself. The Parisian art world was fascinated. The performances were attended by the like of Picasso, Mondrian, Duchamp, Eric Satie, and John-Paul Sarte, but Calder was just as happy staging a performance for an audience of awestruck children.

More
  • Calder_History1
    Alexander Calder with his Cirque Calder, 1929, photograph by Sacha Stone
  • Calder_History2
    Painting in his studio, circa 1970
  • CALDER_History3
    Alexander Calder and Joan Miró, the best of friends
  • CALDER_History4
    Alexander Calder taglia metallo, circa 1955
  • CALDER_History5
    Alexander Calder in his Roxbury studio, 1944, Photograph by Eric Schaal

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