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Key to Chronology:Archival Sources

AAA (Alexander Calder papers, 1926–1967, Archives of American Art,Smithsonian Institution,) includes artist-donated letters, photographs, pressclippings, exhibition announcements, and a scrapbook containing hundredsof clippings and memorabilia from 1926 to 1932.

ASL (Art Students League of New York)

CF (Calder Foundation, New York) maintains an archive of more than120,000 documents, including correspondence and unpublished manu-scripts, 26,000 photographs, and thousands of press clippings, articles,books, and films. In addition, the Foundation’s catalogue raisonné projectmaintains a database of more than 22,000 works of art by Calder with photography, physical data, provenance, and publication and exhibitionhistory for each piece.

FJM (Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Mallorca)

JJS (James Johnson Sweeney Archive [private collection])

NYPL (New York Public Library)

Publications

“‘Abie’ Goldstein, New King of the Bantams.” National Police Gazette,May 3, 1924, 3.

Berch, Bettina. Radical by Design: The Life and Style of Elizabeth Hawes;Fashion Designer, Union Organizer, Best-Selling Author. New York: E.P.Dutton, 1988.

“By Way of Mention.” Top Notes, December 28, 1929.

Calder, Alexander. “Comment réaliser l’art?” Abstraction-Création, Artnon figuratif, no. 1, 1932, 6.

Calder, Alexander. “Mobiles.” In The Painter’s Object, edited by MyfanwyEvans. London: Gerold Howe, 1937, 62–67.

Calder, Alexander, and Jean Davidson. Calder, An Autobiography withPictures. New York: Pantheon Books, 1966.

Chavanée. Liberté, no. 37, January 21, 1929.

“Darkness Falls At 9:11.” New York Times, January 24, 1925.

de Pawlowski. Le Journal, January 19, 1929.

“Futurist Toys for Advanced Kiddies Created by Calder, Artist-Engineer.”New York Herald (Paris edition), August 4, 1927, 7.

Gasch, Sebastián. “El circ d’un escultor.” Mirador, no. 191, September 29,1932.

Geist, Sidney. “The Firemen’s Ball for Brancusi.” Archives of American ArtJournal 16, no. 1, 1976, 8–11.

Gray, Cleve. “Calder’s Circus.” Art in America 52, no. 5, October 1964,22–48.

Hawes, Elizabeth.“More than Modern–WiryArt.”Charm, April1928,47,68.

Hawes, Elizabeth. Fashion is Spinach. New York: Random House, 1938.

Hayes, Margaret Calder. Three Alexander Calders: A Family Memoir.Middlebury, VT: Paul S. Eriksson, 1977.

“International Artist Pays Visit to Concord.” Concord Herald 3, no. 24,June 16, 1932.

“Jouets et objets de poésie.” Comoedia, August 29, 1927.

Lanchner, Carolyn. Joan Miró. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Museumof Modern Art, 1993.

Lechenperg, Harald. “Atelierfest am Montparnasse.” Illustrierte Zeitung(Leipzig edition), August 29, 1929.

Legrand-Chabrier. “Un petit cirque a domicile.” Candide, no. 171 (June 23,1927): 7.

Lipman, Jean. Calder’s Universe. Exhibition catalogue. New York: WhitneyMuseum of American Art, 1976.

Miró, Joan. Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves. Paris: Seuil, 1977.

New York Herald (Paris edition), May 21, 1929.

“Objects to Art Being Static, So He Keeps It in Motion.” New York World-Telegram, June 11, 1932.

Pemberton, Murdock. “Review of Exhibitions.” New Yorker, January 2,1926, 21.

Powell, Hickman. “His Elephants Don’t Drink.” World, January 18, 1931.

Recht, Paul. “Dans le mouvement, les sculptures mouvantes.” Mouvement,no. 1, June 1933, 49.

“Seeing the Circus with ‘Sandy’ Calder.” National Police Gazette, May 23,1925, 14.

“Sudden Brain Waves.” New Yorker, November 30, 1929.

Sweeney, James Johnson. Alexander Calder. Exhibition catalogue. NewYork: Museum of Modern Art, 1951.

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Alexander Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, on July 22 1898, thesecond child of artist parents. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder (1870-1945), was a classically trained sculptor, and his mother, Nanette LedererCalder (1866–1960), a painter. As a young boy Calder often posed for hisparents. Stirling received many public commissions, moving his family oftenaround the United States.

Throughout his youth, Calder was encouraged to create. When he waseight, his parents gave him the cellar of the family’s home in Pasadena,California, to use as his own studio. In this childhood workshop, Calderhoned his natural facility with tools as he experimented with commonmaterials to create sculptures and toys. For Christmas of 1909, Calder pre-sented his parents with two of his first sculptures: a dog and a duck eachtrimmed from a sheet of brass and bent into formation. The duck is kinetic;it rocks back and forth when tapped.

Calder’s mechanical ability led him to pursue engineering as a vocationand in 1919 he received his degree in mechanical engineering from theStevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. Calder was brieflyemployed in a variety of positions, among them as a draftsman for the NewYork Edison Company and as an efficiency engineer for the firm Miller,Franklin, Bassett, before ultimately embracing a career as an artistin 1923.

1922June: Serving on the H.F.Alexander as a fireman in the boiler room, Caldersails from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. During thevoyage, off Guatemala, he awakes on deck to a brilliant rising sun and a fullsetting moon on opposite horizons. (Calder 1966, 53–55)

Mid-June: Arriving in San Francisco, Calder takes a lumber schooner toWillapa Harbor, Washington, where he catches the bus for Aberdeen andmeets his sister Peggy and her husband, Kenneth Hayes. Calder finds a jobas a timekeeper for a logging camp in Independence, Washington. I wassupposed to make out paychecks for people. I also had to scale the logs asthey were loaded on the flatcars. (Calder 1966, 55–56)

Summer: Inspired by the logging camp landscape, Calder writes home andasks his mother for paints and brushes. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 39; Calder1966, 57–58)

1923Spring: With the help of Stirling’s introduction, Calder seeks employmentwith an engineer in Canada. I went to Vancouver and called on him, andwe had quite a talk about what career I should follow. He advised me to dowhat I really wanted to do—he himself often wished he had been an archi-tect. So, I decided to become a painter. (Calder 1966, 59)

Before October: Calder returns to New York and stays with his parentsat 119 East Tenth Street. (Calder 1966, 59)

October–December: Calder begins classes at the Art Students League ofNew York, studying life and pictorial composition with John Sloan and portrait painting with George Luks. (Calder 1966, 59–61, 66–67; ASL, reg-istration records)

1924January–April: Calder enrolls again at the Art Students League, takingclasses in portrait painting with George Luks, head and figure with GuyPène Du Bois, a drawing class with Boardman Robinson, and an etchingclass. (ASL, registration records)

Fig. 1 Untitled [Stirling and NanetteCalder], 1924, Etching, sheet: 10 1⁄4 x 7 9⁄16 in.(26 x 17.8 cm); plate: 6 x 5 in. (15.2 x 12.7 cm)Calder Foundation, New York

Fig. 2 City Park, 1924–26. Lithograph, sheetand image: 12 1⁄8 x 19 in. (30.8 x 48.3 cm).Whitney Museum of American Art, NewYork; purchase with funds from the PrintCommittee 94.117

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Before May 3: Calder begins his first job as an artist, illustrating sportingevents and city scenes for the National Police Gazette. (Calder 1966, 67;Gazette, May 3)

Before May 17: Calder moves into his father’s studio, 11 East FourteenthStreet, while his parents are traveling in Europe. (Calder 1966, 66, 70;Hayes 1977, 81)

September–November: Calder studies life drawing with BoardmanRobinson at the Art Students League. (ASL, registration records)

1925January 24: A total eclipse of the sun is visible from the northern part ofManhattan. Along with thousands of New Yorkers, Calder travels uptown,stopping at the steps of Columbia University to watch. He makes TheEclipse (A01041), an oil painting of the scene. (New York Times, January24; CF, object file)

March: Calder studies life drawing with Boardman Robinson at the ArtStudents League. (ASL, registration records)

March 6–29: Calder exhibits The Eclipse at the Ninth Annual Exhibitionof The Society of Independent Artists, Waldorf-Astoria, New York. In theexhibition catalogue he lists his address as 119 East Tenth Street, where heperiodically lives with his parents. (CF, exhibition file)

Before May 23: Calder spends two weeks illustrating the Ringling Bros.and Barnum & Bailey Circus for the National Police Gazette. I could tellby the music what act was getting on and used to rush to some vantagepoint. Some acts were better seen from above and others from below.(Calder 1966, 73; Gazette, May 23)

Winter: Calder makes hundreds of brush drawings of animals at the BronxZoo and the Central Park Zoo. (CF, object files; Sweeney 1951, 72)

December: Calder takes a lithography class with Charles Locke at the ArtStudents League. (ASL, registration records)

Winter: Calder travels to Florida. First he visits Miami, then Sarasota,where he sketches at the winter grounds of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum& Bailey Circus. I was very fond of the spatial relations. I love the space ofthe circus. I made some drawings of nothing but the tent. The whole thingof—the vast space—I’ve always loved it. (Gray 1964, 23)

1926January: Artists Gallery, New York, includes an oil painting by Calder ina group exhibition. Murdock Pemberton, the art critic for the New Yorker,comments on the exhibition: A. Calder, too, we think is a good bet. (CF,exhibition file; Pemberton 1926)

Winter: While renting a room in the apartment of Alexander Brook, assis-tant director of the Whitney Studio Club, Calder embellishes the Brook chil-dren’s “Humpty Dumpty Circus.” He adds movement and articulation tothe set of store-bought toys, making an elephant that could “go round a circle” and a mechanism that could “hoist a clown on his back.” (Hayes1977, 90; Calder 1966, 80; CF, Calder 1955–56, 44)

February 27: American painter Walter Kuhn organizes a stag dinner at theUnion Square Volunteer Fire Brigade, Tip Toe Inn, New York, in honor ofsculptor Constantin Brancusi’s first visit to the United States. Calder paintsFiremen’s Dinner for Brancusi (A00413) commemorating the event. (Geist1976; AAA, Louis Bouché Papers, dinner invitation)

Before March 5: Calder sketches a human dissection at Physicians andSurgeons Hospital. I drew for several hours and subsequently painted TheStiff (A15753) . . . I went to a party that evening and kept asking if I didnot smell of forma(h)ldehide—my hair, particularly. They said “no”—butthe odor was with me—and although I really intended returning, I neverdid. (CF, Calder 1955-56, 51)

March 5–28: Calder exhibits The Stiff at the Tenth Annual Exhibition ofThe Society of Independent Artists, Waldorf-Astoria, New York. (CF, exhi-bition file)

March 8–20: Calder exhibits an oil painting at the Whitney Studio ClubEleventh Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Members of theClub, Anderson Galleries, New York. (CF, exhibition file)

Spring: At his friend Betty Salemme’s house on Candlewood Lake inSherman, Connecticut, Calder carves his first wood sculpture, Flat Cat(A04792), from an oak fence post. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 174)

Spring: Calder moves into a tiny, one-room apartment at 249 WestFourteenth Street. There he makes his first wire sculpture, a sundial(A23544) in the form of a “rooster on a vertical rod with radiating lines atthe foot” to demarcate the hours. (Hayes 1977, 90; Calder 1966, 71-72)

May: Animal Sketching (A00376), a drawing manual written by Calderwith reproductions of 141 of his brush drawings, is published by BridgmanPublishers. (CF, project file)

May: Calder exhibits The Horse Show (A16014) in an exhibition on the

Fig. 3 Calder’s U.S. passport, issued June26, 1926. Calder Foundation, New York

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subject of the horse at the Anderson Galleries, New York, curated by KarlFreund. (CF, exhibition file)

June 26: Calder receives his U.S. passport in preparation for his first voy-age to Europe. (CF, passport)

July 2: With the help of his former teacher, Clinton Balmer, Calder signson to the crew of the Galileo, a British freighter sailing for Hull, England.He works as a laborer, painting the exterior of the ship. (Calder 1966,76–77; CF, Calder to parents, July 18)

July 19: Calder arrives in Hull, spends one night, and takes the noon trainto London. (CF, Calder to parents, July 18)

July 20: Calder arrives in London and stays four nights with Bob Trube,his fraternity brother from Stevens. (CF, Calder to parents, July 26)

July 24: Calder leaves England, taking the 10 am train from VictoriaStation to New Haven and the ferry to Ville de Dieppe in France. He arrivesin Paris and calls on Trube’s father at the Hôtel de Versailles, 60 boulevardde Montparnasse. [Trube] had written his dad to look out for me. So I gota room here at 35F and am on the 7th floor with a French window thatgives fine light and air and a red rug and brown wallpaper that wouldknock your eye out. Also an upright piano. (CF, Calder to parents, July 26)

Summer: At the Café du Dôme, a meeting place for artists and their deal-ers, Calder recognizes American painter Arthur Frank, an acquaintancefrom New York, and meets British printmaker Stanley William Hayter,whose wife he knew from the Art Students League. (Calder 1966, 78)

Summer: Calder enrolls in drawing classes at the Académie de la GrandeChaumière. (Calder 1966, 78)

August 3: Calder’s French identity card is issued for 1926–27. (CF, carted’identité)

August 26: Calder establishes a studio at 22 rue Daguerre. (CF, Calder toparents, August 26)

September 8: Calder is hired to leave France for a quick round-trip voy-age on the SS Volendam, Holland-America Line; he sketches life on boardthe ship for the Student Third Cabin Association’s poster and advertisingbrochure. (Calder 1966, 79; CF, Calder to parents, c. August 26)

September 18: Calder arrives in New York on the SS Volendam. (CF,Calder to parents, c. August 26)

September 27 and 28: Calder arrives at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, onthe SS Volendam and travels by train to Paris the following day. (CF, Calderto parents, September 25 and 27, and October)

Fall: Calder meets Lloyd Sloane, an advertising executive, who introduceshim to staff at the Boulevardier, including Marc Réal, artistic adviser.Several of Calder’s drawings are published in the Boulevardier over the nextfew months. (Calder 1966, 83)

Fall: Calder meets a Serbian toy merchant who encourages him to make

mechanical toys for mass production. (Calder 1966, 80; CF, Calder1955–56, 44)

Fall: Through Hayter, Calder meets José de Creeft, a Spanish sculptor liv-ing on rue Broca. De Creeft suggests to Calder that he submit his toys to theSalon des Humoristes. (Calder 1966, 80)

Fall: Calder begins creating Cirque Calder (A00019). Fashioned from wire,fabric, leather, rubber, cork, and other materials, Cirque Calder is designedto be performed for an audience by Calder. It develops into a multiact articulated series of mechanized sculpture in miniature scale, a distillationof the actual circus. Easily transportable, Calder is able to travel with hiscircus and hold performances on both continents. The performances lastedabout two hours. Over the next five years, Calder continues to developand expand this work of performance art to fill five large suitcases. (CF, project file)

Fall: Clay Spohn, a painter friend from the Art Students League, visitsCalder’s studio and sees two works made from wood and wire: a cow anda four-horse chariot. He suggests that Calder use only wire. Calder makesthe wire sculptures, Josephine Baker (A11566) and Struttin’ His Stuff(A08308). (Calder 1966, 80–81; CF, Calder 1955–56, 45)

Fall: Calder performs Cirque Calder for Mrs. Frances C. L. Robbins, apatron of young artists. On her recommendation, English novelist MaryButts brings Jean Cocteau to a performance. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 68;Hawes 1928)

1927March 6–May 1: Calder exhibits toys at the Salon des Humoristes atGalerie La Boétie, Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

May 1: Réal brings Guy Selz and the circus critic, Legrand-Chabrier, to seeCalder perform Cirque Calder. Legrand-Chabrier admires Calder’s workand writes several articles on Cirque Calder:Oh, these are stylized silhouettes, but astonishing in their miniature resem-

Fig. 4 Calder’s carte d’identité, issuedAugust 3, 1926. Calder Foundation, New York

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blance, obtained by means of luck, iron wire, spools, corks, elastics. . . . Astroke of the brush, a stroke of the knife, of this, of that; these are the skill-ful marks that reconstruct the individuals that we see at the circus.Here is a dog that seems like a prehistoric cave drawing with a body of ironwire. He will jump through a paper hoop. Yes, but he may miss his mark ornot. This is not a mechanical toy. . . . All of this is arranged and balancedaccording to the laws of physics so that it allows for the miracles of circusacrobatics. (Calder 1966, 83; CF, Calder 1955–56, 149–150; Candide, June 23)

June 17: Calder renews his French identity card. (CF, carte d’identité)

August: Galleries of Jacques Seligmann and Company, Paris, exhibits animated toys by Calder. (CF, exhibition file; Comoedia, August 29)

August 4: The New York Herald, Paris edition, publishes an article aboutCalder and his decision to make toys: I began by futuristic painting in asmall studio in the Greenwich village section of New York. It was a lot dif-ferent to engineering but I took to my newfound art immediately. But itseemed that during all of this time I could never forget my training atStevens, for I started experimenting with toys in a mechanical way. I couldnot experiment with mechanism as it was too expensive and too bulky so Ibuilt miniature instruments. From that the toy idea suggested itself to me soI figured I might as well turn my efforts to something that would bringremuneration. From then on I have constructed several thousand workabletoys. (New York Herald, August 4)

September 27: Calder returns to New York and stays with his parents at9 East Eighth Street. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 46; Calder 1966, 86)

After November 12: Calder travels to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to contractwith Gould Manufacturing Company. He designs prototypes for a series ofplywood animal “Action Toys.” (Calder 1966, 83–85; CF, Pajeau to Calder,November 12)

Winter: Calder returns to New York and rents a room at 46 Charles Streetwhere he gives Cirque Calder performances. (Calder 1966, 87; CF, Calder1955–56, 46)

1928February 20–March 3: Weyhe Gallery, New York, exhibits WireSculpture by Alexander Calder. Calder creates a hanging sign, WireSculpture by Alexander Calder (A00248), for the gallery window. (CF, exhi-bition file; CF, Calder 1955–56, 25)

March 9–April 1: Calder exhibits four sculptures, including Romulus andRemus (A00247) and Spring (A00619), at the Twelfth Annual Exhibitionof The Society of Independent Artists, Waldorf-Astoria, New York. (CF,exhibition file)

After April 9: ACME Film Company produces Sculptor Discards Clay, afilm of Calder’s wire sculpture that includes footage of Calder creating awire portrait of Elizabeth “Babe” Hawes, a reporter and aspiring fashiondesigner whom he had met in Paris (A23147). (CF, project file)

Summer: Calder spends the summer working on wood and wire sculpturesat the Peekskill, New York, farm of J. L. Murphy, the uncle of fraternitybrother, Bill Drew. I worked outside on an upturned water trough andcarved the wooden horse (A00232) bought later by the Museum of ModernArt, a cow (A00233), a giraffe (A04925), a camel (A13442), two elephants(A13300; A00235), another cat (A04719), several circus figures, a manwith a hollow chest (A13920), and an ebony lady bending over dangerously(A09834), whom I daringly called Liquorice. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 47;Calder 1966, 88–89)

October: Hawes establishes a couture house at West Fifty-sixth Street inNew York. Calder occasionally designs neckpieces and other accessories forher clothing. (Hawes 1938, 134–36; Berch 1988, 34–35)

October 24: The French Consulate, New York, grants Calder a visa.(AAA, passport)

November 3: Calder arrives at Le Havre after a voyage from New Yorkon the De Grasse. He returns to Paris, where he rents a small buildingbehind 7 rue Cels to use as his studio. (AAA, passport; Calder 1966, 91)

Fall: At the Café du Dôme, Paris, Calder sees his acquaintance, the painterYasuo Kuniyoshi, and meets “a small man in a bowler hat,” who he learnsis the painter Jules Pascin, a friend of Stirling’s. (Calder 1966, 91)

December 10: At the recommendation of Hawes, Calder writes to JoanMiró in Montroig, Spain, suggesting that they meet when Miró returns toParis. (Calder 1966, 92; FJM, Calder to Miró, December 10)

End of December: Calder visits Joan Miró at his Montmartre studio, “asort of metal tunnel, a kind of Quonset hut.” Miró has no paintings in thestudio, but he shows Calder a collage consisting of “a big sheet of heavygray cardboard with a feather, a cork, and a picture postcard glued to it.There were probably a few dotted lines . . . I was nonplussed; it did not looklike art to me.” Later, Miró attends Cirque Calder. (Calder 1966, 92)

1929January 18–28: Calder exhibits Romulus and Remus (A00247) andSpring (A00619) at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Indépendants, Paris.The public reaction is a mixture of confusion and delight. One criticremarks, At first, I believed that electricians had forgotten their electricalwire in this room, but as I passed, a wire became agitated and I noticed thatit represented the head of a she-wolf. Another tangle of electrical wire rep-resented, by all evidence, a giant young woman. Another critic advises, Allthe same, look at them. Who knows if the sculpture of Mr. Calder is notthat of the future? In any case, it doesn’t spawn melancholy. (CF, exhibitionfile; Le Journal, January 19; Liberté, January 21)

January 25–February 7: Galerie Billiet-Pierre Vorms, Paris, exhibitsSculptures bois et fil de fer de Alexandre Calder. Jules Pascin writes thepreface for the exhibition catalogue:By some miracle, I became a member of a group of Aces of American Art,a Society of very successful painters and sculptors!!!

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—The fortunes of the life of an itinerant painter!The same luck led me to meet the father Stirling Calder.Away from New York at the time of our exhibition, I cannot testify to thesuccess of our effort; but in any case, I can attest that Mr. Stirling Calder,who is one of our best American sculptors, is also the handsomest man inour Group.Returning to Paris, I met his son SANDY CALDER, who at first sight leftme quite disillusioned. He is less handsome than his Dad! Honestly!!!But in the presence of his works, I know that he will soon make his mark;and that despite his appearance, he will exhibit with spectacular successalongside his Dad and other great artists like me, PASCIN, who’s talking toyou. . . !(CF, exhibition file)

After January 25: In writing about his own history of wire sculpting,Calder notes a change in his approach to the medium: Before, the wire stud-ies were subjective, portraits, caricatures, stylized representations of beastsand humans. But these recent things have been viewed from a more objec-tive angle and although their present size is diminutive, I feel that there is

no limitation to the scale to which they can be enlarged. There is one thing,in particular, which connects them with history. One of the canons of thefuturistic painters, as propounded by Modigliani, was that objects behindother objects should not be lost to view, but should be shown through theothers by making the latter transparent. The wire sculpture accomplishesthis in a most decided manner. (CF, Calder, unpublished manuscript, 1929)

February 4–23: Weyhe Gallery, New York, exhibits Wood Carvings byAlexander Calder. Calder writes to his parents about their thoughts on theexhibition: I’m glad you think the show looked well, for I was afraid theywould clutter it up and detract from things. (CF, exhibition file; CF, Calderto parents, March 5)

Spring: Sacha Stone, a German photographer, sees Calder perform CirqueCalder at the rue Cels studio. He suggests that Calder perform and exhibitin Berlin. (Calder 1966, 97)

March 15: The German Consulate, Paris, stamps Calder’s passport. (AAA,passport)

March 16–17: Calder leaves Paris with Stone and takes a train to Berlin tomake arrangements for an exhibition. (CF, Calder to parents, March 17)

March 20–21: Calder returns to Paris to gather works to exhibit in Berlin.(CF, Calder to parents, April 6)

March 22–23: Calder travels back to Berlin to prepare his exhibition.(CF, Calder to parents, April 6)

April 1–15: Galerie Neumann-Nierendorf, Berlin, exhibits AlexanderCalder: Skulpturen aus Holz und aus Draht. (CF, exhibition file)

April: In Berlin, Dr. Hans Cürlis directs a short film of Calder creating TwoAcrobats (A08299) as part of the series Artists at Work. Calder makes awire portrait of Cürlis (A00253). (CF, Calder to parents, before May 8)

After May 8: Calder exhibits a wire sculpture, at the Salon des Tuileries,Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

After May 9: I have had 2 large circus parties since coming back to Paris.At one of them we had Paul Fratellini, one of the famous clowns at theCirque d’Hiver. It was quite a swell party—and I am making one of the toysin a size large enough for him to use in the Cirque d’Hiver (A15171). (CF,Calder to parents, before May 8)

Before May 21: Pathé Cinema, Paris, produces a short film of Calder atwork in his rue Cels studio. Calder invites Kiki de Montparnasse to modelfor a wire portrait (A17094) during the filming. (Calder 1966, 99; NewYork Herald, May 21)

Before June 22: Calder performs Cirque Calder in the studio of Léonard[Tsuguharu] Foujita, a painter and well-known denizen of Montparnasse.Foujita plays a drum to accompany Calder’s performance. Man Ray andKiki are among the guests in attendance. (Lechenperg, Illustrierte Zeitung[Leipzig edition], August 29)

Fig. 5 Catalogue of Alexander Calder:Skulpturen aus Holz und aus Draht,Galerie Neumann Nierendorf, April 1–15,1929. 7 7⁄8 x 5 5⁄16 in. (17.8 x 12.7 cm). Calder Foundation, New York

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Before June 22: André Kertész photographs Calder in his studio. (CF,photographs by André Kertész)

June 22: Calder embarks for New York on the De Grasse, bringingCirque Calder with him. During the voyage, he meets Edward HoltonJames and his daughter, Louisa. So once on board the De Grasse, I startedwalking the deck. I overtook an elderly man and a young lady. I could onlysee them from the back, so I reversed my steps the better to see them faceon. Upon coming abreast of them the next time around, I said, “Goodevening!” And the man said to his daughter, “There is one of themalready!” He was Edward Holton James, my future father-in-law. She wasLouisa. Her father had just taken her to Europe to mix with the youngintellectual elite. All she met were concierges, doormen, cab drivers—andfinally me … Her father had traveled with her to protect her, but he had abad case of asthma on the boat and could not do his duty. (AAA, passport;Calder 1966, 101)

Before August 28: Calder visits Louisa and her older sister, Mary, atEastham on Cape Cod. Calder was a perfect guest. He mended everythingin sight and kept us in gales of laughter all day long. (Calder 1966, 101; CF,Louisa to mother, August 29)

August 28: Calder performs Cirque Calder at Hawes’s couture house, 8 West Fifty-sixth Street, New York. (AAA, circus poster)

October 29: Calder performs Cirque Calder at art patron MildredHarbeck’s apartment, 306 Lexington Avenue, New York. (AAA, circusposter)

November–December: Calder stays with his friend, book designerRobert Josephy, at Beekman Place and Fiftieth Street. Josephy was veryenthusiastic over my circus. This encouraged me and while at his house, Iworked on it very hard. He helped me. We made the chariot race and thelion tamer, and it got to be quite a full blown circus, growing from two suit-cases into five. (Calder 1966, 103)

November 30: After the New Yorker announces that performances ofCirque Calder can be arranged through the Junior League entertainmentcenter at Saks Fifth Avenue, Calder is hired by Newbold Morris to performin his Babylon, Long Island, home; Isamu Noguchi operates a phonographproviding the music. (“Sudden Brain Waves” 1929; CF, Calder 1955–56,142)

December 2–14: Fifty-sixth Street Galleries, New York, exhibitsAlexander Calder: Paintings, Wood Sculpture, Toys, Wire Sculpture,Jewelry, Textiles. (CF, exhibition file)

December 16: For her birthday, Calder gives Hawes a wire “chastity belt”that spells out her name along with the French café slogan “ouvert la nuit”(open at night). (Hawes 1938, 136; Berch 1988, 34–35)

Before December 25: Calder creates his first formal mechanized sculp-ture, Goldfish Bowl (A00274) and presents it to his mother as a Christmasgift. For his father, he makes a wire fish (A19898). He made me a fish tankof brass wire, with two fish that wiggle as you turn a crank made also ofwire. Waves are indicated along the top. For your Dad a large fish that isnow hanging from the electric light. Peggy, it is remarkable. One wirebeginning at his tail, running along the backbone to the head where the eyesand mouth are faultlessly placed. Then the wire loops around the back boneas it travels back to form the other half of the tail. This is hard to describe,but it is really wonderful as is the fish bowl in which the fishes bend as tho[sic] swimming. (Hayes 1977, 225–26)

December 25: Calder performs Cirque Calder in the home of AlineBernstein on Park Avenue. Noguchi is present, as is Thomas Wolfe, wholater incorporates a wry fictionalized account of the event into his novel,You Can’t Go Home Again. (Calder 1966, 106-107; Hayes 1977, 226)

Before December 28: At a party thrown by Walter Damrosch at NBCStudios, Calder approaches Aline Fruhauf, the cartoonist for the magazineTop Notes, wearing “a curiously wrought ornament which seemed to be abee or dragonfly of gold filament, perched where a shirt stud should be(A21607). Suddenly, he reached in his pocket, brought out a paper and a pencil and began to caricature the cartoonist (A18905).” (”By Way ofMention,” 1929)

Fig. 6 Poster for circus performance on August28, 1929. Linoleum cut with blue ink on paper.Calder Scrapbook, 1926–32, 72. Alexander Calderpapers, 1926–1967, Archives of American Art,Smithsonian Institution

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December 31: Calder performs Cirque Calder on New Year’s Eve at thehome of Jack and Edith Straus on West Fifty-seventh Street, New York. (CF,Calder 1955–56, 142)

1930Before January 27: Calder stays in the apartment of his friend Paul Nitzeat 112 East Fortieth Street. At Nitze’s request, he performs Cirque Calder.(Calder 1966, 107; CF, Calder 1955–56, 110)

January 17–March 2: Two works by Calder are exhibited at the Salon dela Société des Artistes Indépendants, Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

January 27–February 4: Harvard Society for Contemporary Art,Cambridge, Massachusetts, exhibits Wire Sculpture by Alexander Calder.Calder performs Cirque Calder for the faculty and students on January 31.(CF, exhibition file)

March 10: Calder sails for Spain on the Spanish freighter Motomar. Theship docks briefly in Málaga, and Calder explores the town. Two days later,Calder debarks in Barcelona. I went to the Hotel Regina, in a little room upsomewhere high. It was then I decided that I liked white walls and red tileflooring. . . . I tried to find Miró, but I guess he was away in the country. Iwent to a bullfight, and then on to Paris by train. (Calder 1966, 108–110)

After March 10: Calder rents a studio at 7 Villa Brune. (Calder 1966, 110)

May: Calder exhibits La Negresse (A00766) in 11e Salon de l’Araignée atGalerie G.L. Manuel Frères, Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

May 23: Calder casts twelve sculptures in bronze at the Fonderie Valsuani,Paris. “There is a fine bronze foundry at the end of Villa Brune––so I amgoing to delve into cire perdue.” (CF, Calder to parents, May 23)

May 23–July 27: Calder receives an invitation from Rupert Fordham tosail to L’Île Rousse in Corsica. They visit Antoni and Calvi on the westcoast. (Calder 1966, 110-112; CF, Calder to parents, May 23, July 27)

August 6: While in Calvi, Calder collects fragments of ancient pottery andfashions the pieces into a necklace (A20412). I meant to write you a birth-day letter two days ago, but I made you a necklace instead––having broughtalong pliers and wires, and found bits of things along the parapets of thecitadel, to put into it . . . I have been making a lot more wire jewelry––andI think I’ll really do something with it, eventually. (CF, Calder to mother,August 6)

September 10: Calder performs Cirque Calder at 7 Villa Brune. For seat-ing, he invites spectators to bring their own boxes. (CF, project file)

After September 12: Louisa James visits Calder in Paris. (CF, Louisa toMother, September 7)

October: In need of money to pay rent, Calder charges admission to per-formances of Cirque Calder. I bought planks, pinched some boxes, andmade bleachers. I handled thirty people an evening on, I believe, fourevenings. At the end of my professional run, the concierge came and said

the proprietor who lived in the front could not get to sleep on account ofthe cymbals. (Calder 1966, 113–14)

October 14: On the advice of Frederick Kiesler, a Viennese architect,Calder invites Le Corbusier, Carl Einstein, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian,and Theo Van Doesburg to a presentation of Cirque Calder at 7 Villa Brune.To avoid conflicts, Kiesler insists that Calder send a telegram invitingVan Doesburg for the following night. (Calder 1966, 112–13; AAA, circusposter)

October 15: Van Doesburg and his wife, Pétro [Nelly], attend a perfor-mance of Cirque Calder. I got more of a reaction from Doesburg than I hadfrom the whole gang the night before. (Calder 1966, 112–13; AAA, circusposter)

Fall: Kiesler introduces Calder to composer Edgard Varèse, and Caldermakes a wire portrait of him (A00259). Varèse, who feels that his own com-positions resonate with Calder’s new abstract sculpture, becomes a frequentvisitor to Calder’s studio. (Calder 1966, 125; CF, Calder 1955–56, 78)

October: Accompanied by another American artist, William “Binks”

Fig. 7 Poster for circus performance on October 28, 1929. Linoleum cut with violet ink onpaper. Calder Scrapbook, 1926–32, 72. AlexanderCalder papers, 1926–1967, Archives of AmericanArt, Smithsonian Institution

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Einstein, Calder visits Mondrian’s studio at 26, rue de Départ. Alreadyfamiliar with Mondrian’s geometric abstractions, Calder is deeplyimpressed by the studio environment: It was a very exciting room. Lightcame in from the left and from the right, and on the solid wall between thewindows there were experimental stunts with colored rectangles of card-board tacked on. Even the victrola, which had been some muddy color, waspainted red. I suggested to Mondrian that perhaps it would be fun to makethese rectangles oscillate. And he, with a very serious countenance, said:“No, it is not necessary, my painting is already very fast” . . . This one visitgave me a shock that started things. Though I had heard the word “mod-ern” before, I did not consciously know or feel the term “abstract.” So now,at thirty two, I wanted to paint and work in the abstract. And for twoweeks or so, I painted very modest abstractions. At the end of this, I revert-ed to plastic work which was still abstract. (Calder 1966, 113; CF, Calder1955–56, 78)

October 25–November 24: Calder exhibits nine works, including Lelanceur de poids (A00843) and Femme nue (A09280), at the AssociationArtistique les Surindépendants, Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles,Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

November: The American photojournalist Thérèse Bonney photographsCalder in his studio at 7 Villa Brune. (NYPL, photography collection)

After November 6: Louisa James decides to marry Calder. I have justcome home from a polo game with a not particularly entrancing youngman, and I have decided that I am sick to death of going out with one per-son and another that don’t interest me. I am sick of it chiefly because theonly person that amuses me and has amused me for the last year and a half,is Sandy. The only thing to do to my mind is to make it permanent and getmarried, and the sooner the better. . . . To me Sandy is a real person whichseems to be a rare thing. He appreciates and enjoys the things in life thatmost people haven’t the sense to notice. He has ideals, ambition, and plen-ty of common sense, with great ability. He has tremendous originality, imag-

ination, and humor which appeal to me very much and which make life col-orful and worthwhile. He enjoys working and works hard, and thus endsthe summary of his character. (CF, Louisa to mother, after November 6)

Winter: Calder makes a gold ring to present to Louisa James. I had knowna little jeweler in Paris, Bucci, and he had helped me make a gold ring—forerunner of an array of family jewelry—with a spiral on top and a helixfor the finger. I thought this would do for a wedding ring. But Louisa mere-ly called this one her “engagement ring” and we had to go to Waltham, near by, and purchase a wedding ring for two dollars. (Calder 1966, 116)

December 2–January 20: Calder exhibits four wood sculptures, includ-ing Cow (A00233), in Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans, at theMuseum of Modern Art, New York. (CF, exhibition file)

December 17–22: Calder returns to New York on the Bremen (Calder1966, 114; AAA, postcard, Wiser to Calder)

1931January 1–15: Calder prints postcards to announce performances ofCirque Calder at 903 Seventh Avenue, New York. Five performances aregiven; each audience includes about thirty spectators. (AAA, circusannouncement; The World, January 18)

January 16: Calder performs Cirque Calder at the James’s home inConcord, Massachusetts. (Calder 1966, 115)

January 17: Alexander Calder and Louisa James are married. The rev-erend who married us apologized for having missed the circus the nightbefore. So I said: “But you are here for the circus today.” (Calder 1966, 115)

Before February 1: The Calders sail for Europe on the American Farmer.They return to live in Calder’s studio at 7 Villa Brune. (Hayes 1977,249–50; Calder 1966, 116)

February: The Abstraction-Création group is founded; members includeJean Arp, Robert Delaunay, William “Binks” Einstein, Jean Hélion, PietMondrian, and Anton Pevsner. (Calder, 1966, 114)

April 27–May 9: Calder’s abstract work is presented for the first time inthe exhibition Alexander Calder: Volumes—Vecteurs—Densités; Dessins—Portraits, at Galerie Percier, Paris. Léger writes in the introduction to thecatalogue: Eric Satie illustrated by Calder. Why not? ‘It’s serious without seeming to be.’Neoplastician from the start, he believed in the absolute of two colored rectangles . . .Looking at these new works—transparent, objective, exact—I think ofSatie, Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Brancusi, Arp—these unchallengedmasters of unexpressed and silent beauty. Calder is in the same family.He is 100-percent American.Satie and Duchamp are 100-percent French. Where do they meet?(CF, exhibition file)

Fig. 8 Necklace, 1930. Brass wire,ceramic, and cord, loop: 15 3⁄4 in. (40 cm). Calder Foundation, New York

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April 27: Pablo Picasso arrives before the opening at Galerie Percier to pre-view the exhibition privately. He introduces himself to Calder. (CF, Calder1955–56, 95)

May 2: The Calders move into a three-story house at 14, rue de la Colonie.(Calder 1966, 121; Hayes 1977, 252–53; AAA, taxi receipt)

May: Louisa buys a dog, a small briard mix. She and Calder name himFeathers because of his wispy hair. (Calder 1966, 121–22; CF, Calder toparents, c. June 16)

End of May: Mary Reynolds is up from Villefranche for a few weeks, sowe are seeing a bit of her and Marcel Duchamp. (CF, Calder to parents, c.June 5)

June: Calder accepts an invitation to join Abstraction-Création. (Calder1966, 114; CF, Calder to parents, July 1)

July: Calder’s wire sculpture is included in an exhibition ofNovembergruppe at Künstlerhaus, Berlin. (CF, exhibition file)

Before July 12: Calder continues to expand the use of motion in hisabstract sculpture. I felt that perhaps I was exactly a perfectionist: i.e. that who was I to decide that a thing should be just this way, or just thatway—so I made one or 2 objects articulated, so that they could be in anumber of positions. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 108)

July 12: Calder writes his parents of his new work: I have been making a few new abstractions which have certain movements combined with their

other features. I think there is something in it that may be good.(CF, Calder to parents, July 12)

August 4–September 11: The Calders visit Palma de Mallorca, staying atthe Hotel Mediterraneo. They call on the Juncosas, Pilar Miró’s family.After a month in Paguera, they return to Paris. (CF, Calder to parents July31, September 18; Calder 1966, 122–23)

August: Harrison of Paris publishes Fables of Aesop, According to SirRoger L’Estrange (A00377), containing fifty illustrations by Calder. (CF,project file)

October 23–November 22: Calder exhibits two paintings and twosculptures in Association artistique les Surindépendants at Parc desExpositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

October 29–30: Calder performs Cirque Calder in his studio, 14, rue dela Colonie. (FJM, Calder to Miró, 1931)

Fall: I had been working on things with a little motion, some with moremotion. I had quite a number of things that went round and round, drivenby a small electric motor—some with no motor—some with a crank.(Calder 1966, 126)

Fall: Marcel Duchamp visits the studio at 14, rue de la Colonie again andsees Calder’s latest works. There was one motor-driven thing, with three ele-ments (A13718). The thing had just been painted and was not quite dry yet.When he put his hands on it, the object seemed to please him, so hearranged for me to show in Marie Cuttoli’s Galerie Vignon, close to theMadeleine. I asked him what sort of a name I could give these things andhe at once produced Mobile. In addition to something that moves, in Frenchit also means motive. Duchamp also suggested that on my invitation card Imake a drawing of the motor-driven object and print: CALDER/SESMOBILES. (Calder 1966, 127)

November: Calder selects a sculpture (A08480) from among the worksexhibited at Galerie Percier and donates it to the recently founded MiejskieMuzeum Historji i Sztuki (now known as the Museum Sztuki or Museumof New Art) in Lodz, Poland. The work is later lost during World War II.(Calder 1966, 118)

November: Calder exhibits with Abstraction-Création at Porte deVersailles, Paris. He performs Cirque Calder. (CF, Calder to parents, July 1,Lipman 1976, 331; Calder 1966, 118–21)

Mid-November: The Calders visit Port-Blanc in the Côte d’Armor,Bretagne. (Calder 1966, 125–26; CF, Louisa to Mother, November 30)

1932Calder publishes “Comment réaliser l’art?” for the first issue ofAbstraction-Création, Art non figuratif. Out of volumes, motion, spacesbounded by the great space, the universe. Out of different masses, tight,heavy, middling—indicated by variations of size or color—directional line—vectors which represent speeds, velocities, accelerations, forces, etc. . . .—

Fig. 9 Page from Abstraction-Création,Art non figuratif, no. 1, 1932. CalderFoundation, New York

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these directions making between them meaningful angles, and senses,together defining one big conclusion or many. Spaces, volumes, suggestedby the smallest means in contrast to their mass, or even including them, jux-taposed, pierced by vectors, crossed by speeds. Nothing at all of thisis fixed. Each element able to move, to stir, to oscillate, to come and go in its rela-tionships with the other elements in its universe. It must not be just a fleeting moment but a physical bond between the vary-ing events in life. Not extractions, But abstractions Abstractions that are like nothing in life except in their manner of reacting.(Calder, Abstraction-Création, Art non figuratif, 1932)

January 15–28: Calder exhibits drawings, including Untitled (Elephants)(A16085), in Exposition de dessins at Galerie Vignon, Paris. (CF, exhibitionfile)

January 15–February 1: Calder exhibits two works, including Untitled(A13687), in 1940 at Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris. (CF,exhibition file)

February 7–21: Calder exhibits in The Fifth Annual Exhibition of ModernFrench Painting at The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago.(CF, exhibition file)

February 12–29: Calder: ses mobiles is held at Galerie Vignon, Paris. (CF,exhibition file)

After February 12: In response to Duchamp’s term “mobile,” Arp asks,Well, what were those things you did last year [for Percier’s]—stabiles?Calder adopts “stabile” to refer to his static works. (Calder 1966, 130)

February 20–22: Calder performs Cirque Calder at his studio in Paris.(AAA, circus poster)

March 8: Calder writes the statement “Que ça bouge: À propos des sculp-tures mobiles.” The various objects of the universe may be constant at times, but their recip-rocal relationships always vary. There are environments that appear to remain fixed whilst there are smalloccurrences that take place at a great speed across them. This appears soonly because one sees nothing but the mobility of the small occurrences. Wenotice the movement of automobiles and other beings in the street, but wedo not notice the turning of the earth. We believe that automobiles go at agreat speed on a fixed ground; yet the speed of the earth’s rotation at theequator is 40,000 km every 24 hours. As truly serious art must follow the greater laws, and not only appearance,I try to put all the elements in motion in my mobile sculptures. It is a matter of harmonizing these movements, thus arriving at a new possibility for beauty. (CF, unpublished manuscript, 1932)

March 12: In a letter to Kiesler, Calder describes the reaction to hismobiles. We had a lot of visitors—Léger, Picasso, Carl Einstein, BinksEinstein, Petro van Doesburg, Cocteau, Roux, etc.—who all were enthusi-astic about ‘abstract sculptures which move’ (toy elec. motors being used).There was only one dissenter . . . that was Mondrian. He said they weren’tfast enough, and when I stepped on the gas, he said they still weren’t fastenough, so I said I’d make one especially fast, to please him, and then hesaid that that wouldn’t be fast enough—because the whole thing ought tobe still. Now I feel that beauty of motion is a very real thing—unrelated toany definite machinery. Whether I’ve achieved it is, of course, another ques-tion. (CF, Calder to Kiesler, March 12)

May: In preparation for their departure from Antwerp to New York on aBelgian freighter, the Calders rent their house to Gabrielle Buffet, the for-mer wife of Francis Picabia. (Calder 1966, 136–37)

May 9: Calder introduces himself in writing to American art critic JamesJohnson Sweeney. About 3 or 4 months [ago] M. Fernand Léger came to myhouse in Paris to see my ‘mobiles’—abstract sculptures which move—andsaid he would like to bring you to have a look at them too . . I am expos-ing a few of these ‘mobiles’ at the Julien Levy Gallery 602 Madison AveN.Y.C. and would be very pleased if you would come and see them. (JJS,Calder to Sweeney, May 9)

Fig. 10 Invitation to Calder: ses mobiles,Galerie Vignon, February 12-29, 1932.Letterpress, 5 5⁄8 x 4 5⁄16 in. (12.7 x 10.2 cm).Calder Foundation, New York

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May 12–June 11: Calder: Mobiles, Abstract Sculptures is held at the JulienLevy Gallery, New York. The exhibition announcement reprints Léger’sintroduction to the Percier catalogue. (CF, exhibition file; New York Times,May 13)

June 11: Before a group of reporters visiting his exhibition at Julien LevyGallery, Calder demonstrates the motion in Small Black Panel (A15258).This has no utility and no meaning. It is simply beautiful. It has great emo-tional effect if you understand it. Of course if it meant anything it would beeasier to understand but it would not be worthwhile. (New York World-Telegram, June 11)

Before June 16: The Calders visit Louisa’s parents in Concord. Calderperforms Cirque Calder at the James’s home. (The Concord Herald, June 16)

After June 16: The Calders visit Calder’s parents in Richmond,Massachusetts. Calder performs Cirque Calder in an old barn that Stirlinguses as a studio. (CF, Calder 1955–56, 146)

Before September 10: The Calders arrive in Barcelona after a fourteen-day passage on the Cabo Tortosa, Garcia and Díaz Spanish line. Followinga stop in Málaga, they take a train from Barcelona to Tarragona. (Calder1966, 138-140; FJM, Calder to Miró, July 19)

September 12: The Calders arrive at the Miró farm in Montroig for aneight- to ten-day visit. During their stay, Calder performs Cirque Calder forthe Mirós, their farmhands, and their neighbors. Miró recalls the event: Hecame to Montroig and brought the circus figures, on which he neverstopped working. We organized a presentation for the local farmers whowere very pleased with the spectacle of the wire performers. Later theCirque was presented in galleries, but there in Montroig it was really a performance for the people. (Calder 1966, 139; Lanchner 1993, 330; Miró1977, 114–15)

After September 12: The Calders and Mirós visit Cambrils andTarragona. (Calder 1966, 139)

Before September 29: The Calders return to Barcelona and visit Gaudi’scathedral. Invited by the Amics de l’Art Nou, Calder performs CirqueCalder in the hall of the Grup d’Arquitects i Tecnics Catalans per al Progresde l’Arquitectura Contemporania (GATCPAC). Shortly thereafter, theCalders return to Paris. (Calder 1966, 140–41; Gasch 1932)

1933January 19–31: Calder’s sculptures are included in the group exhibitionPremière série, organized by the Association Artistique Abstraction-Création, Paris. (CF, exhibition file)

January 29–30: The Calders take a train from Paris to Madrid, wherethey visit the Museo del Prado. (CF, Calder to Peggy, February 2)

February 1–2: Works by Calder are presented at the Sociedad de Cursos yConferencias, Residencia de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Madrid.Calder also performs Cirque Calder for the students. (AAA, Circus pro-gram; CF, Louisa to Mother, February 11)

February 11–12: Calder performs Cirque Calder in Barcelona. (CF, Louisato Mother, February 11)

February 13: Miró arranges for an exhibition of drawings and sculptureby Calder at the Galería Syra, Barcelona. (CF, Louisa to Mother, December1932, February 11)

February 16: The Calders travel to Rome to visit Louisa’s godmother,“Tanta” Bullard. (CF, Louisa to Mother, December 1932, February 11)

March 10: The Calders return to Paris. (FJM, Calder to Miró, March 15)

Spring: Calder constructs an interactive “performance” sculpture(A23051). I had a small ballet-object, built on a table with pulleys at thetop of a frame. It was possible to move coloured discs across the rectangle,or fluttering pennants, or cones; to make them dance, or even have battlesbetween them. Some of them had large, simple, majestic movements; otherswere small and agitated. (Calder 1937, 64; CF, Calder to Sweeney July 19,1934)

May 16–18: Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris exhibits Présentation des oeuvresrécentes de Calder. Reviewing the exhibition, Paul Recht writes: The libertyof some of the ensembles is absolutely disconcerting: we see two balls, onelittle and one big, in turn fixed to wires of very different lengths that arethemselves fixed to the two extremities of a balancing arm hung above theground. The big ball is animated by a pendular and rotary movement; itleads the little one on unexpected evolutions that multiply by impact uponsurrounding objects. They are extraordinary visual variations on the themeof calamity, by the means of gravity and centrifugal force. (CF, exhibitionfile; Recht 1933)

Fig. 11 Poster for circus performances February20–22, 1932. Calder Foundation, New York

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June 9–24: Arp, Calder, Hélion, Miró, Pevsner, et Seligmann is presentedat Galerie Pierre, Paris; Anatole Jakovski writes the text for the catalogue.At Galerie Pierre, Calder meets Sweeney, perhaps for the first time. Sweeneybecomes an avid proponent of Calder’s work. (Calder 1966, 148; CF, exhi-bition file; Lipman 1976, 331)

Before June 22: Miró stays with the Calders at 14, rue de la Coloniewhile he prepares for his own Exposition surréaliste at Galerie Pierre Colle.(Lanchner 1993, 330–31, 439)

June 24: Miró presents the Calders with a large blue painting as a going-away present. (Lanchner 1993, 330–31; CF, object file)

End of June–July: Calder and Louisa give up their house in Paris andreturn to New York in the company of Jean Hélion. There were so manyarticles in the European press about war preparations that we thought wehad better head for home. (Calder 1966, 143–44)

The Calders returned to the United States to reestablish themselves in NewYork, where Calder rented a vacant storefront to use as a studio. They alsopurchased an eighteenth-century farm in Connecticut, and Calder convert-ed the old icehouse into a modest dirt-floored studio. The Calders’ firstdaughter, Sandra, was born in 1935, and a second daughter, Mary, followed in 1939.

In the catalogue for his 1933 exhibition Modern Painting andSculpture, held at the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts—hisfirst after returning to the United States—Calder described his work: “Whynot plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translatory or rotary motion butseveral motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing tomake a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so onecan compose motions.”

The 1930s were the most fertile and expansive period of Calder’scareer. He continued the work he had begun in Paris by refining and adapt-ing the idea of an abstract composition in motion. This idea developed fromrepeating movement into variable movement, where the elements are sus-ceptible to environmental interaction.

Calder began his association with the Pierre Matisse Gallery in NewYork with his first show there in 1934. James Johnson Sweeney, who hadbecome a close friend, wrote the catalogue's preface.

In 1937, Calder completed Devil Fish, his first stabile enlarged from amodel, a precursor to later monumental works. That same year the Caldersreturned to Europe for an extended stay. While in Paris, Calder received acommission to make Mercury Fountain, exhibited with Picasso’s Guernicaand Miró’s The Reaper, in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair.Supplied with mercury from the city of Almadén, Calder’s fountain wasovertly political, symbolizing resistance to Francisco Franco’s fascism.

The first retrospective of Calder’s work was held in 1938 at the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. A second, major retrospective, curated by Sweeney in collaboration withMarcel Duchamp, was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York,in 1943.

During World War II, when metal was in short supply, Calder turnedto wood, plaster, recycled materials, and found objects as sculptural media.In keeping with his wartime economy, Calder made a series of small-scaleworks, many out of scraps of metal trimmed while making larger pieces.While visiting Calder’s studio in 1945, Duchamp became intrigued by thesesmall works. Inspired by their portability, he arranged an exhibition forCalder at Galerie Louis Carré in Paris. This important show was held thefollowing year, and Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his famous essay on Calder’smobiles for the exhibition catalogue.

In 1953–54, the Calders spent a year in France.They visited their friendJean Davidson in the town of Saché in the Loire Valley and acquired a houseand studio from him. In 1962, Calder built a large studio nearby, and theCalders began to spend much of the year in Saché.

Calder’s artistic talents were renowned worldwide by the 1960s. A ret-rospective of his work opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum inNew York in 1964 and traveled to the Musée national d’art moderne inParis. In 1966, Calder published his autobiography. During his lifetime,Calder received more than two hundred and fifty public and private com-missions. He was the subject of more than one hundred monographic muse-um exhibitions and nearly two hundred gallery shows.

In 1976, he attended the opening of a huge retrospective of his work,Calder’s Universe, which filled much of the Whitney Museum of AmericanArt in New York. Just a few weeks later, Calder died at the age of seventy-eight, ending one of the most prolific and innovative artistic careers of thetwentieth century.

Fig. 12 Hugo P. Herdeg (1909–1953), Caldernext to the Mercury Fountain commis-sioned for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937Paris World’s Fair. Behind him is Picasso’sGuernica. Calder Foundation, New York