Lot 131
  • 131

Alexander Calder

Estimate
800,000 - 1,200,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Alexander Calder
  • Peau de Banane
  • signed with the artist's monogram on the base
  • painted metal and wire
  • 27 1/2 by 41 3/4 by 12 in. 69.9 by 106 by 30.5 cm.
  • Executed in 1968, this work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A11586.

Provenance

Galerie Maeght, Paris
Brook Street Gallery, London (acquired in 1968)
Studio Marconi, Milan
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1976

Exhibited

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Summertime, July - September 1970, cat. no. 7
Milan, Studio Marconi, Calder, April - May 1971

Condition

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. The colors are bright, fresh and clean. The elements move freely and smoothly. There is evidence of light wear and handling to the base and mobile elements with resultant scattered paint loss, most noticeably to the base on the side with the artistÂ’s monogram. There are also areas of former adhesive residue on the yellow element and base. There are very light red media accretions on the white element, possibly from the time of execution. Under raking light, some scattered and unobtrusive abrasions are visible.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Alexander Calder is one of the foremost pioneers of 20th Century sculpture. With a groundbreaking, fresh visual vocabulary and a mechanically complex and artistically sophisticated body of work, his greatest accomplishments are undeniably those created in three dimensions. When viewing a sculpture by Calder – whether it be a wire work, mobile or stabile – one immediately is delighted by the ingenious intermingling of the playful, scientific, natural, and exuberant. Calder astutely questioned the state of sculpture in 1932 when he asked, "Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely 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” (Alexander Calder, "Objects to Art Being Static, So He Keeps It in Motion," New York World-Telegram, June 11, 1932). Calder answered his own question and took the next step in sculpture by creating works with moving parts. These works, termed mobiles by Marcel Duchamp, have been at the forefront of Calder’s most celebrated sculptures since their inception in the 1930s. Calder fabricated these mobiles in varying, multifaceted ways, some with only hanging elements and others incorporating standing elements. Calder produced mobiles over the span of his oeuvre and through the decades he constantly innovated his original idea and thought of new, brilliant ways to make his sculptures move. Calder broke through the boundaries of abstraction and achieved for sculpture what his predecessors, Klee, Kandinsky and Miró, had achieved for modern painting. Calder's corpus of work quite literally redefined 20th Century sculpture.

Calder enjoyed success in his lifetime and was lauded for his inventiveness and creativity. In the preface to the catalogue for Calder’s 1942 exhibition at the Parisian Galerie Louie Carré, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “In short, although mobiles do not seek to imitate anything… they are nevertheless at once lyrical inventions, technical combinations of an almost mathematical quality and sensitive symbols of nature” (ibid., p. 261). These ‘sensitive symbols of nature’ that Sartre describes have a harmonious balance between the mystical and the natural. As Calder took deep inspiration from the universe, he expertly created a concurrently magical yet corporeal and scientific world in his work. His genius lies in his ability to create something that previously never existed, but represents reality. In a 1962 interview with Katherine Kuh, when asked whether or not he considered himself a realist, the artist responded “yes” and continued, “because I make what I see. It’s only the problem of seeing it. If you can imagine a thing, conjure it up in space – then you can make it, and tout de suite you’re a realist. The universe is real but you can’t see it. You have to imagine it. Once you imagine it, you can be realistic about reproducing it” (Alexander Calder and Katharine Kuh, “Alexander Calder,” in The Artist's Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists, Evanston, 1962). In Calder's most exciting works, his imagination comes to life. 

Peau de Banane from 1968 evidences Calder’s deep desire to intertwine the imaginary and the real. The present work, standing twenty-seven and a half inches high, is delightfully playful with its vivid colors and cosmic-inspired forms that suspend in and move through space. Peau de Banane showcases the meticulousness of Calder as a craftsman as he cut, curved, perforated, and bent the materials of this standing mobile by hand. The manual element of the work is countered by the cosmos-like equilibrium posed by the four delicate shapes each painted a different color – black, white, yellow and blue. These elements connect through the delicate, red wire that leads a viewer’s eye to the sturdy, red three-legged base. Calder quite deliberately chose these colors and painted the stabilizing elements of this work a vivid red which was the artist’s favorite. He once proclaimed, “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). The present work showcases Calder’s remarkable capacity to achieve balance and create a superb abstract composition. A sculptural jewel combining planetary and biomorphic elements, Peau de Banane is truly an exceptional example of Calder’s standing mobiles from the 1960s.