Alexander Calder | Untitled
Untitled
1943
Sheet metal, rod, wire, and paint
33 x 42 x 28 inches (83.8 x 106.7 x 71.1 cm)
© 2019 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photo: Elisabeth Bernstein
On public view for the first time, Alexander Calder’s Untitled (1943) exemplifies the exuberance of the artist’s signature “mobiles,” which he began to construct in the early 1930s. Suspended from the ceiling or placed directly on the floor, Calder’s mobiles and stabiles broke with the Western sculptural tradition, trading solidity, stasis, and permanence for lightness, contingency, and chance. Untitled features abstract forms cut from sheet metal, which was in short supply during the war years, painted in black, yellow, and red. These shapes respond to breezes and drafts—their spontaneous movements reflect the ephemerality and unpredictability of nature.