Modern and Contemporary Art

Note

This work has been registered in the Archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A10143.

Alexander Calder first began experimenting with gouache as a medium when he and his wife visited Aix-en-Provence in 1953, using a carriage shed next to their rented house in Les Granettes as his studio. Later buying a house in Saché, France, he called his studio on the grounds his “gouacherie,” referring to its previous use as a pigsty (“porcherie”). Calder’s sense of humor and play are evident here in the looping forms, energetic colors and bold composition, seemingly translating the kinesthetic, organic qualities of his sculptural work onto the two dimensional field. Loops, Petals & Orbs comes at a mature point in the artist’s career, when he had gained international recognition and was engaged in commissions of large-scale works around the world.