Suspended in perfect balance, Alexander Calder’s .125 embodies the artist’s inimitable aesthetic, expressed through the captivating rhythm and cascade of sixteen elements in red, orange yellow and black. Executed in 1956, this elegant mobile belongs to a rare group of three maquettes for the monumental .125 that hangs today in the International Arrivals Building at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The present work represents both a pivotal moment in Calder’s career and a masterful distillation of his sculptural language: intimate in scale, yet monumental in spirit.
The importance of this particular mobile extends beyond its relationship to the JFK commission. It was photographed in one of the most iconic images of the artist’s career—Calder himself holding the work, his hands outstretched, his expression equal parts play and concentration. That photograph captures the intimate scale at which Calder conceived even his grandest ideas. In his hands, .125 appears alive: its slender wires bending in response to unseen air currents, its delicate forms suspended in mid-flight.
Alexander Calder’s .125 will be part of Sotheby’s New York Contemporary Day Auction on 19 November 2025.
