"Excluding every anecdotal element, Calder reduces the object to a few simple lines carving out elementary colors. This object, employing only the properties of movement—not represented movement but real movement—is miraculously brought to life in the most concrete shapes and restores to us the evolution of the celestial bodies, the rustling of foliage, the memory of caresses.” André Breton in: Exh. Cat., New York, L&M Arts, Tanguy, Calder: Between Surrealism and Abstraction, 2010, p. 152

Sotheby’s is honored to present the Collection of Luce and Arthur Klein, which includes works lovingly selected by the couple during their time in France and New York. Luce and Arthur met in a Jeep on their way to Lyon, France in 1945 to attend the rededication of the synagogue which had been desecrated by the Nazis.  Arthur was an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, decoding German messages.  Luce was working in the French Resistance finding homes for Jewish children. The two shared a passion for the dramatic arts and literature, collaborating on articles in French and English on dramatic arts, translating plays, and directing, acting and producing several theatrical productions which toured Europe. In 1956, after living several years abroad, Luce and Arthur Klein channeled their passions into founding Spoken Arts, Inc. in New Rochelle, New York. As one of the first spoken word recording companies, its mission was “to encourage a revival and reevaluation of the importance of the spoken word.” In the ensuing years, Spoken Arts, Inc. became well-known for its recordings of twentieth-century authors and poets reading their own works, including Arthur Miller, Dorothy Parker, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, among others. The company's archives are now housed at Yale University, New Haven.