- 24
亞歷山大·考爾德
描述
- 亞歷山大·考爾德
- 《無題》
- 著色金屬、動態雕塑
- 24 x 84 x 42英寸;61 x 213.4 x 106.7公分
- 1951年作,此作已在紐約考爾德基金會的檔案中註冊,編號 A05580。
來源
Thence by descent to the present owners
展覽
Condition
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.
拍品資料及來源
Although Marcel Duchamp had been the first to use the word ‘mobile’ in 1913, it was Calder who revolutionized the concept of traditional sculpture by utilizing 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 squares of colored paper, arranged on the wall in the manner of one of Mondrian’s paintings, inspired Calder to think of the kinetic possibilities of art. In an interview in 1932, Calder revealed his excitement at the extraordinary new creative world he was in the process of discovering: “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.” (cited in Howard Greenfield, The Essential Alexander Calder, New York, 2003, p. 67)
It was in 1932 that Calder made his very first hanging 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. Uncomplicated though this early work appears at first glance, Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere anticipates the astounding later mobiles such as Untitled, enabling the sculptor to blaze a path through wholly unexplored artistic territory. The first open-air mobile, Steel Fish, was created in 1934, and over the following two decades Calder continued to create mobiles – alongside his stabiles, earthbound investigations into sculptural form – of ever-increasing complexity and intricacy, utilizing myriad numbers of colored metallic segments to create pieces of stunning sophistication. Two years prior to the making of Untitled, Calder created his largest mobile to date, International Mobile, an immensely impressive work that was the centerpiece of the 3rd International Exhibition of Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Calder achieved further international appreciation in 1952 when he was awarded the major sculptural prize at the 26th Venice Biennale, indicating that his genius had been fully recognized by the wider artistic community by the time Untitled was created. Ultimately Untitled stands at the pinnacle of Calder’s investigation into the possibilities of kinetic art, perfectly epitomizing the emotions and attitudes suggested in the sculptor’s own conclusion on the art form he had pioneered: “When everything goes right a mobile is a piece of poetry that danced with the joy of life…” (cited in Op. Cit., p. 47) In its glorious riot of primary colors and celebration of movement and form, Untitled truly does seem to ‘dance’ with pure joie-de-vivre.