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ALEXANDER CALDER (1898-1976)

 
Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement. Alexander Calder executed a surprising number of oil paintings during the second half of the 1940s and early 1950s. By this time, the shock of his 1930 visit to Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed not by the paintings but by the environment, had developed into an artistic language of Calder’s own. So, as Calder was painting The Cross in 1948, he was already on the cusp of international recognition and on his way to winning the XX VI Venice Biennale’s grand prize for sculpture in 1952. Working on his paintings in concert with his sculptural practice, Calder approached both mediums with the same formal language and mastery of shape and color.<br><br>Calder was deeply intrigued by the unseen forces that keep objects in motion. Taking this interest from sculpture to canvas, we see that Calder built a sense of torque within The Cross by shifting its planes and balance. Using these elements, he created implied motion suggesting that the figure is pressing forward or even descending from the skies above. The Cross’s determined momentum is further amplified by details such as the subject’s emphatically outstretched arms, the fist-like curlicue vector on the left, and the silhouetted serpentine figure.<br><br>Calder also adopts a strong thread of poetic abandon throughout The Cross’s surface. It resonates with his good friend Miró’s hieratic and distinctly personal visual language, but it is all Calder in the effective animation of this painting’s various elements. No artist has earned more poetic license than Calder, and throughout his career, the artist remained convivially flexible in his understanding of form and composition. He even welcomed the myriad interpretations of others, writing in 1951, “That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.”<br><br>Either way, it is important to remember that The Cross was painted shortly after the upheaval of the Second World War and to some appears to be a sobering reflection of the time. Most of all, The Cross proves that Alexander Calder loaded his brush first to work out ideas about form, structure, relationships in space, and most importantly, movement.
La Cruz194828 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.(73,03 x 92,08 cm) óleo sobre lienzo
Procedencia
Galería Perls, Nueva York
Colección privada, adquirida a los anteriores
Exposición
Crane Gallery, Londres, Calder: Oils, Gouaches, Mobiles and Tapestries, 5 de marzo-1 de mayo de 1992
Preguntar

"Para mí lo más importante en la composición es la disparidad". - Alexander Calder

Historia

Alexander Calder realizó un sorprendente número de óleos durante la segunda mitad de la década de 1940 y principios de la de 1950. Para entonces, el impacto de su visita de 1930 al estudio de Mondrian, donde quedó impresionado no por los cuadros sino por el entorno, se había convertido en un lenguaje artístico propio de Calder. Así, mientras Calder pintaba La cruz en 1948, ya estaba en la cúspide del reconocimiento internacional y en camino de ganar el gran premio de escultura de la XX VI Bienal de Venecia en 1952. Calder trabajaba en la pintura al mismo tiempo que en la escultura, y abordaba ambos medios con el mismo lenguaje formal y el mismo dominio de la forma y el color.

Calder estaba profundamente intrigado por las fuerzas invisibles que mantienen los objetos en movimiento. Llevando este interés de la escultura al lienzo, vemos que Calder creó una sensación de torsión en La Cruz cambiando sus planos y su equilibrio. Con estos elementos, creó un movimiento implícito que sugiere que la figura avanza o incluso desciende del cielo. El ímpetu decidido de laCruz se amplifica con detalles como los brazos extendidos del personaje, el vector en forma de puño a la izquierda y la silueta serpentina.

Calder también adopta un fuerte hilo de abandono poético en toda la superficie de La cruz. Resuena con el lenguaje visual hierático y claramente personal de su buen amigo Miró, pero es todo Calder en la eficaz animación de los diversos elementos de este cuadro. Ningún artista se ha ganado más licencias poéticas que Calder y, a lo largo de toda su carrera, se mantuvo flexible en su comprensión de la forma y la composición. Incluso acogió con agrado las innumerables interpretaciones de los demás, escribiendo en 1951: "Que otros capten lo que yo tengo en mente no parece esencial, al menos mientras ellos tengan otra cosa en la suya".

En cualquier caso, es importante recordar que La Cruz fue pintada poco después de la agitación de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y a algunos les parece un reflejo aleccionador de la época. Sobre todo, La Cruz demuestra que Alexander Calder cargó primero su pincel para elaborar ideas sobre la forma, la estructura, las relaciones en el espacio y, lo que es más importante, el movimiento.

  • Esculturas de yeso, estudio de Roxbury, c. 1948

    Esculturas de yeso, estudio de Roxbury, c. 1948

    Fundación Calder, Nueva York
  • Calder con Jackson Pollock, East Hampton, c. 1948

    Fotografía de Herbert Matter © Calder Foundation, Nueva York
  • Calder, "La gran oreja", 1943

    Calder, "La gran oreja", 1943

    Instalado en el exterior del Pabellón Americano en la 26ª Bienal de Venecia, 1952
"La sensación de movimiento en la pintura y la escultura se ha considerado durante mucho tiempo como uno de los elementos primordiales de la composición". - Alexander Calder

CONOCIMIENTOS DEL MERCADO

  • Calder_AMR
  • Calder desde 2014 AMR
  • El gráfico de Art Market Research muestra que, desde enero de 1976, el valor de las obras de arte de Calder ha aumentado un 5068,8%. Durante este mismo periodo de ocho años, la tasa de rendimiento anual de las piezas de Calder ha sido del 8,7%.
  • En el segundo gráfico, vemos que el valor de las obras de arte de Calder ha aumentado un 66% desde noviembre de 2014, lo que supone una tasa de rendimiento anual del 6,3%.
  • Aunque Calder fue un artista prolífico, los óleos sobre lienzo como La cruz se encuentran entre los ejemplos más raros de la obra del artista.

Cuadros comparables vendidos en subasta

Óleo sobre lienzo, 48 x 45 pulg. Vendido en Sotheby's Nueva York: 11 de noviembre de 2014.© 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York.

"Personnage" (1946) se vendió por 1.865.000 dólares.

Óleo sobre lienzo, 48 x 45 pulg. Vendido en Sotheby's Nueva York: 11 de noviembre de 2014. 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York.
  • Pintado dos años antes de La Cruz
  • Colores similares, pero la abstracción en La Cruz es más relatable
  • Vendido en subasta en 2014, este cuadro valdría hoy bastante más de 3 millones de dólares
Óleo sobre lienzo, 48 x 60 pulg. Vendido en Sotheby's Nueva York: 14 de noviembre de 2018.© 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York.

"Fond rouge" (1949) se vendió por 1.815.000 dólares.

Óleo sobre lienzo, 48 x 60 pulg. Vendido en Sotheby's Nueva York: 14 de noviembre de 2018. © 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York.
  • Pintado justo un año después de La Cruz
  • Una bonita abstracción, pero no tan emocionante compositivamente como La Cruz
  • El fondo aquí es de un solo color, mientras que La Cruz equilibra múltiples tonos en su fondo

Cuadros similares en colecciones de museos

Galería de Arte de la Universidad de Yale

Surveyor's Instruments (1955), óleo sobre lienzo, 24 x 18 pulg. 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York

Museo de Arte Moderno de San Francisco

Espiral y hélice (1956), óleo sobre lienzo, 17 7/8 x 26 1/8 pulg. 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York

Museo Nacional de la Cooperación Franco-Americana, Blérancourt, Francia

Sin título (1930), óleo sobre lienzo, 32 x 26 pulg. 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York.
"Si puedes imaginar una cosa, conjurarla en el espacio, entonces puedes hacerla... El universo es real, pero no puedes verlo. Hay que imaginarlo. Una vez que lo imaginas, puedes ser realista a la hora de reproducirlo". - Alexander Calder

Galería de imágenes

Recursos adicionales

Galería de la Torre de la Galería Nacional de Arte

Contemple la mayor exposición permanente del mundo de obras de Calder en el edificio Este de la Galería Nacional de Arte.

Calder en el mundo

Utilice el mapa interactivo de la Fundación Calder para explorar el mundo a través del arte de Calder.

Obras de Calder

Vea a Calder trabajando en esta película de 1950 producida por New World Film Productions para el Museo de Arte Moderno.

Alexander Calder: Armonía disonante

Vea la exposición de obras de Calder en el SFMOMA, que se podrá ver hasta mayo de 2023.
© 2023 Calder Foundation, Nueva York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), Nueva York

Preguntar

Consulta - Arte individual

Otras obras de Alexander Calder

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