‘Just as one can compose colours, or forms, so one can compose motions.’
(Alexander Calder cited in: Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, London, 2015, p. 24)



In 1926, Calder moved to Paris where he became familiar with the work of the leading personalities of the art world of those years, including Joan Miro and Piet Mondrian. It was precisely a visit to the studio of the latter that deeply touched Calder, igniting in him a desire to create ‘moving Mondrians’ (as the artist explained in a letter to Marcel Duchamp dating from 1930). The bold colours used for the base of this mobile, and their geometrical shape, recall Mondrian’s famous compositions.

Despite being best known for his kinetic sculptures, often referred to as mobiles after Marcel Duchamp’s use of this term in 1931, Calder also created paintings and prints throughout his life. While some of his paintings might be seen as studies for later three-dimensional works or indeed the basis for his lithographs which became increasingly popular in the 1940s and 1950s, this oil painting stands as a work of art in its own right. Moreover, it has not been exhibited or published since it was first shown at Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin in New York in 1947 (figs. 1 and 2).
Six carefully balanced forms, three black shapes and three coloured circles, are suspended against a flowing background composed of three contrasting hues that have been slowly graduated by the artist to create an overall harmony. The varying position of the solid forms suggest a bouncing or oscillating motion, akin to the effect achieved by his delicate mobile sculptures. While several of these shapes, particularly the circles, were common in Calder’s lithographic practice, this work retains a resolutely painterly quality, with visible brushstrokes and passages of blending evident especially in the background. This is characteristic of his oil paintings during this time, visible in works such as Seven Black, Red and Blue (1947, Calder Foundation, New York).
Calder, ever the resourceful and adaptable artist, responded to shortages in the metals that he usually employed in his sculptures caused by the United States’ involvement in World War Two, by adjusting his practice, creating three-dimensional works in wood, and an increased number of oil paintings. This work dates from a particularly prolific time in the artist’s life at the height of his success; in 1943, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a major retrospective of the artist’s work, and in 1946, the important exhibition at the Galerie Louis Carré in Paris, organised by Marcel Duchamp and with a catalogue essay by Jean-Paul Sartre, consolidated Calder’s position as one of the most esteemed artists not just in the United States, but also in Europe.



This artwork has been certified by the Calder Foundation, New York, and is registered under no. A05659.





Fig. 1: Installation photograph, Alexander Calder, Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin, New York, 1947.

Fig. 2: Calder at the exhibition, Alexander Calder, Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin, New York, 1947.