E xecuted at the height of Alexander Calder’s critical and commercial success, Untitled (1963) is a captivating example of the artist’s ground-breaking mobiles. A timeless and contemporary phenomenon, the floating equilibrium of the present work transcends the forces of gravity to achieve a state of complete weightlessness. As with the artist’s greatest mobiles, Untitled is wonderfully complex in its sense of limitless kinetic possibility, shifting and rotating to create infinite permutations within the simplest of abstract forms and constellations. The configuration of components are perfectly balanced; the dazzling red disks align opposite the alternating sets of black, yellow and white plates, only to disperse and intermingle as the mobile rotates.

Extending to over a metre in length, this work’s scale is belied by the effortless way it appears to float gracefully through the air. Motion, and its various potential qualities, are at the core of Calder’s explorations of sculptural kinetics, with his seminal invention of the mobile being the consummate of equipoise in contemporary art.

Calder’s interest in composition and motion was evident in early childhood. Rather than following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and training as a classical sculptor, Calder enrolled at the Art Students League in New York to study painting and drawing. In 1926, he moved to Paris, and later recalled, “It was more or less directly as a result of my visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio in 1930, and the sight of all his rectangles of colour deployed on the wall, that my first work in the abstract was based on the concept of stellar relationships … For though the lightness of a pierced or serrated solid or surface is extremely interesting the still greater lack of weight of deployed nuclei is much more so” (The artist, “À Propos of Measuring a Mobile”, in Agnes Rindge Claflin, Papers concerning Alexander Calder 1936-circa 1970s, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution). It was this encounter with the environment of Mondrian’s studio that would go on to have a lasting impact on the artist.

Whilst the term sculpture usually evokes ideas of a static object, many avant-garde sculptors of the twentieth century sought to break down the historical binaries of sculpture, from volume to void, surfaces to mass, gravity and lightness. Setting sculpture into motion became the ultimate frontier. Having revelled in the challenges of harmonizing sculptural design with technical concerns, and having won the Grand Prize in sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1952 for his innovative use of sheet metal, Calder continued to explore the possibilities of three-dimensional movement via the hanging mobile format. Calder later recalled of his mechanized mobiles from 1931, "I asked him [Marcel Duchamp] what sort of a name I could give these things and he at once produced 'Mobile.' In addition to something that moves, in French it also means motive" (the artist, quoted in Jean Davidson, Ed., Calder: An Autobiography with Pictures, New York 1966, p. 127).

For many years, Untitled was in the collection of famed designer and fashion icon, Liz Claiborne. The first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company and highly successful female fashion designer, Claiborne ran in creative circles, befriended people such as the famed photographers Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus, as well as the acclaimed artist and Andy Warhol collaborator, Paul Thek. Growing up in both Brussels, where she was born in 1929, and in Louisiana, where her family were direct descendants of the first governor of the state, Claiborne initially trained as a painter before creating her instantly successful fashion brand in 1976. In 2001 her husband and business partner Art Ortenberg gave her the present work by Calder, its rich colour and lively configurations hanging in their apartment overlooking Central Park, New York.

Oscillating harmoniously, the solid forms and vibrant shades of Untitled are alive with the dynamism and hypnotic energy that has come to define Calder’s ground-breaking oeuvre. A giant of twentieth century art, Calder’s mobiles are at once mysterious and unknowable, intimate and enigmatic, existing in perfect equilibrium and balance. When viewing Untitled, one is inevitably drawn into the spell of its spirited movements and the smooth interplay of its constituent parts, as well as to the sense of calm and beauty it emanates.

《無題》（1963年作）創作之時正值亞歷山大・考爾德的事業巔峰，是他所開創的動態雕塑中的典範之作，妙趣橫生。本作是不受時間左右的非凡傑作，懸空排列的金屬片保持平衡，對抗地心吸力，讓雕塑彷彿完全處於無重狀態。就如考爾德的其他動態雕塑一樣，《無題》展現了動能所能成就的無限可能，簡單而抽象的形狀不斷搖曳轉動，創造出數之不盡的排序組合。每個元素的配置都完美平衡，整排紅色金屬片對應另一邊黑、白、黃相間的金屬片，只有在雕塑轉動時，紅色金屬片才會散開，混入其他顏色的金屬片中。

這件雕塑逾一米長，懸浮在半空卻顯得毫不費力，優雅輕盈。動態，連帶一切動能所有的潛在特質，都是考爾德用動態雕塑探討的創作核心。他的裝置經過計算與安排，完美展現當代藝術中極致的平衡感，在藝術史上甚富開拓性。

考爾德自小就流露對結構、機械和動態的興趣。他沒有追隨同為雕塑家的祖父和父親的腳步，而是選擇入讀新澤西州霍博肯的史蒂文斯理工學院，修讀機械工程學。正因為他的學術背景，以及他所指的機緣巧合，「我在1930年參觀皮耶・蒙德里安的工作室，看見他牆上掛著佈滿彩色矩形的作品，啟發了我以恆星運行的概念創作第一件抽象作品」（引述藝術家，載於卡拉・馬內斯編，《亞歷山大・考爾德︰始終現代》，紐約，2021年，頁40）。

雕塑一詞總讓人聯想到靜態的作品，然而，二十世紀許多前衛雕塑家都試圖打破雕塑中實與虛、面與體、重與輕等對立面，引領雕塑創作走在藝術發展的最前沿。考爾德一直致力於融和雕塑設計與機械學理念，1952年，他的金屬片雕塑為他贏得威尼斯雙年展的雕塑大獎，他進而創作懸掛的動態裝置，探討立體結構運動產生的各種可能性。後來考爾德憶述道︰「我問他（馬塞爾・杜尚）應該為這些東西起甚麼名字，他馬上就想到『動態雕塑』。除了指會動的東西外，這個字在法語還有運動的意思」（引述藝術家，載於珍・李普曼與露絲・沃爾夫編，《考爾德的宇宙》，紐約，1976年，頁268）。

《無題》多年來為著名時裝設計師兼潮流人物麗茲・克萊本（Liz Claiborne）所收藏。克萊本是非常成功的女性時裝設計師，亦是第一位登上《財富》評選全球五百大企業排行榜的女性行政總裁。她縱橫多個創意界別，交友圈不乏文化名人，如知名攝影師李・弗里德蘭德（Lee Friedlander）和黛安・阿布斯（Diane Arbus），以及著名藝術家兼安迪・沃荷的合作夥伴保羅・瑟克（Paul Thek）。克萊本於1929年出身於布魯塞爾，她成長期間穿梭於布魯塞爾和路易斯安那州兩地，她的家族是路易斯安那州第一任州長的後人。她曾經習畫，後來在1976年成立時裝品牌。2001年，她獲丈夫兼生意夥伴阿特・奧滕堡（Art Ortenberg）贈送本作，並將雕塑懸掛在面向紐約中央公園的大宅裡。這件考爾德的雕塑色彩豐富，組件起伏交錯，妙趣無窮。

《無題》柔和地搖曳擺動，實心的形狀和明亮的色彩起伏有致，為雕塑注入活力和催眠力量，是考爾德作品的重要特色。考爾德身為二十世紀的藝壇巨匠，他的動態雕塑神秘莫測，既讓人感到近在咫尺，卻又難以捉摸，完全處於平衡的狀態。《無題》引人入勝，觀者都不由自主被它靈動的風姿和各個元素的巧妙配合所吸引，更對它所展現的寫意和美態深深著迷。