Alexander Calder

Nederlandse Federatie van Beroepsverenigingen van Kunstenaars (donated by the artist)

Hein Otto, Amsterdam (acquired from a charity lottery organised by the above in 1953)

Private Collection, Utrecht (gift from the above in 1970)

Sale: Christie's, Amsterdam, Modern and Contemporary Art, 5 June 1996, Lot 212 

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Alexander Calder: De Grote Ontdekking, 2012, pp. 72 and 207, illustrated in colour 

Cornelis van Domselaar and Guert Imanse, 'De merkwaardige lotgevallen van een Calder-mobile', Jong Holland, No. 3, 1996, p. 31, illustrated in colour 

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are a few minor losses to the paint surface of the red base, and minor discolouration to the white elements all of which are in keeping with the age of the work. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet.light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Created during a period of renewed artistic liberation and discovery in the decade following the end of the Second World War, Untitled is a superb example of Alexander Calder’s small standing mobiles, and features an intriguing story behind its creation. After the North Sea Flood of 1953 – the only time the Netherlands’ defences failed to protect the country – a lottery was organised by a group of artists to assist the flood victims: internationally renowned artists such as Marc Chagall, Henry Moore and Germaine Richier, as well as Calder, were among those who donated works to the cause. Altogether an astonishing 1326 works were donated by artists and were displayed prior to the lottery at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Raadhuis in Heerlen and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Calder sent in three separate pieces: two standing mobiles (including the present work) and a stabile, all of which had been created especially. However, a zealous official at the Stedelijk Museum, where the works consigned to the lottery were to be exhibited, took the decision to split the constituent parts of the standing mobiles into individual lots, separating the bases from their mobile elements in order to offer five works instead of three in the lottery. The delicate wire structure that balances exquisitely at the acme of Untitled was won by a Dutch family by the name of Otto, whom, in the absence of the piece’s base, proceeded to exhibit it atop a knitting needle contained within a flower pot. The red base was won by another collector, but retrieved by the Stedelijk shortly afterwards in exchange for a painting. It took three years of determined negotiations between the Otto family – who had become particularly attached to their ‘half’ – and the Stedelijk museum before the museum agreed to gift the red base to the family, finally re-uniting the work as an entire entity. Inspired by their ownership of Untitled, the Otto family went on to build an impressive art collection over the following decades, acquiring a remarkable 800 works by 1974.

Conveying a greater sense of solidity and permanence through its earthly anchorage than its fully airborne ‘mobile’ counterparts, the present work is imbued with a key sense of dynamism and movement through the addition of delicately floating wire elements and carefully suspended circular forms. The vibrant red of the base is particularly striking: Calder adored the colour, declaring that “I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red” (Alexander Calder quoted in: Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Calder, Cologne 2002, p. 81). Contrasting angular geometric lines with rounded shapes to intriguing effect, the red base of Untitled curves upwards towards a delicate point, upon which arcs of wire and white circles, reminiscent of snowflakes, hang suspended from the peak. Calder’s interest in the natural world, and organic forms, was life-long: his studios in Roxbury, Connecticut and Saché in France were set amidst oases of natural greenery and plenitude, providing constant creative stimulation for his work. With its carefully constructed juxtaposition between the solidity of the base and the dynamism of the floating strands of wire and circles, the overall effect of Untitled is one of extraordinary grace and beauty.

Marcel Duchamp first coined the term 'mobile' in 1931 during a visit to Calder's studio, and it was Calder who revolutionised the concept of traditional sculpture by utilising the full potential of bodies in motion through the remarkable manipulation of metal and wire. Calder’s earliest wire sculptures – frequently portraits of well-known figures of the day – had caused a sensation when exhibited in Paris and New York during the late 1920s, yet the sculptor still sought the elusive breakthrough that would enable him to forge an entirely new form of artistic expression. The answer arrived during a now legendary visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio in 1930, where the sight of rectangles of coloured paper, arranged on the wall for compositional experimentation, prompted Calder to think of the kinetic possibilities of art. It was in 1932 that Calder made his very first ceiling mobile, Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere, an elegantly simple arrangement of a tiny white sphere alongside a larger red sphere that oscillated gently at the end of long, vertical wires. As the most radical component of this sculpture, the small wooden sphere would strike various impedimenta – arranged on the floor by the viewer – and thus initiate Avant Garde music. Herein, Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere anticipates the more complex later mobiles and standing mobiles, enabling the sculptor to blaze a path through wholly unexplored artistic territory over the next decades, seeking to create ever more intricate sculptural creations in order to truly stretch the limits of his medium. Imbued with a further level of interest due to the fascinating saga behind its creation, Untitled can be seen as a remarkable encapsulation of Calder’s utterly distinctive sculptural aesthetic, which had been honed to an astonishing level of technical and visual assurance by this stage of his career.