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n incredible feat of grace and precision, Boomerang on Table from circa 1949 is a notable example of Alexander Calder’s iconic kinetic explorations and technical prowess as an artist. Counterbalanced by one singular element, the entire composition rests perfectly on a single wire and cantilevers below a flat surface. Boomerang on Table truly redefines the space in which it is placed, inhabiting not only the vertical space above it but the space below, redefining the space in which it moves, exemplifying the infinite possibilities of kinetic form and Calder’s practice.
Fellow pioneering modernists such as Jean Arp, Fernand Léger and Joan Miró, as well as the industrialization of the 20th Century and increasingly rapid pace of life, greatly influenced Calder to develop a formal language based on the principles of kinetics. A year after Marcel Duchamp’s 1931 coining of the term “mobile” for the artist’s work, Calder reflected upon his creation of a new visual vernacular: “Why must art be static?... You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an intensely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect, but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion” (the artist quoted in "Objects to Art Being Static, So He Keeps It in Motion," New York World-Telegram, 11 June 1932).
Boomerang on Table, previously resided in the notable collection of Nelson A. Rockefeller. An esteemed and passionate collector, Rockefeller believed in bringing art to the public. He was a board member at the Museum of Modern Art in New York before eventually becoming President of MoMA as well as a key donor. Today, Rockefeller’s remaining collection resides at The Rockefeller Estate in Kykuit, New York.
