Alexander Calder

Perls Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Georgia (acquired from the above in 1961)
Thence by descent to the present owner

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. The elements move smoothly and freely. Under very close inspection, minor pinpoint losses are visible in the loops of the wire and at the extreme edges of some of the elements, as expected for a work from this period. Under raking light, some light pinpoint spots of oxidation is visible on some of the elements.
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A virtuosic example of Alexander Calder’s widely celebrated hanging mobiles, Small One encapsulates the artist’s technical skill and iconic style through the strategic use of metal plates, wire, and color. Despite the present work’s compact form, Small One is a culmination of the conceptual tenets that defined Calder’s long career. Small One’s formal and chromatic qualities are calibrated to give the greatest impact with the highest degree of effortlessness. The subtle use of red, yellow, and white in the work, contrast strikingly with the black, imbuing the sculpture with a bold, outsize presence beyond its physical dimensions. Constructed from painted steel wire and sheet metal, Calder’s sculpture exhibits a graceful rhythm and effortlessness, reminiscent of a dancer poised between motions, or a tree branch swaying in the wind.

Credited with revolutionizing contemporary sculpture, Calder reimagined the role and function of the medium, releasing it from a history of relative stasis and heralding a new era of artistic freedom and invention. Calder was born into a family of artists who supported his exploration from an early age. Initially, he trained as an engineer and was deeply interested in the essential natural laws of the universe, seeking new ways to explore and demonstrate these precepts through art. Using just wire and cut metal, his mobiles engaged the principles of balance, weight distribution, and aerodynamics to set sculpture in motion, overturning nearly every traditional principle of a sculptural landscape in which cast bronze was the dominant medium. Operating on a series of axes, Small One demonstrates Calder’s unique skill in choreographing his sculptures’ movements through meticulous execution, while also allowing them to freely and independently interact with their environment.

To this point, Small One gingerly orbits on a single filament, yet it contains a palpable kinetic energy. With only seven supporting wire shafts and eight painted elements, it is an attenuated and focused work. Each horizontal and vertical axis is symmetrically balanced in a repetitive series of angles, anchored by the final, single diagonal. When the work is at rest, the elements seem to float in airless suspension, yet a single breath can set the entire construction in motion, resuming its unhurried dance through space.



This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A07546.