亞歷山大·考爾德

Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (acquired in 1978)
Phyllis Teplitz, North Woodmere, New York (acquired in 1981)
Mr. and Mrs. Martin Gutner, North Woodmere, New York
Vivian Horan Fine Art, New York (acquired from the above in 1988)
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Belgium (acquired from the above in 1989)
Christie's, New York, May 15, 2013, Lot 28
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Barbara Mathes Gallery, Calder: Drawings, Mobiles and Stabiles, September - October 1988

Exh. Cat., Houston, The Menil Collection, The Surreal Calder, 2005, p. 107, illustrated 
Exh. Cat., New York, Pace Gallery, Calder 1941, 2011, p. 6, illustrated 
Alexander Rower, Calder by Matter, Paris, 2013, p. 110, illustrated

This works is in excellent condition. There are signs of light wear and minor losses scattered on the tripod base, primarily on the legs. The work is slightly dusty overall from airborne dirt and dust. On the largest black element, there is minor inpainting approximately two inches along the extreme outer edge.
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.

Positioned with the supreme finesse that is elemental to Alexander Calder’s paradigm-shifting sculptural praxis, the variously sized circular black elements of Tic Tac Toe balance with perfect gravitational equilibrium atop the sculpture’s elegantly slender tripod base. At once tremendously technical and utterly ethereal, Calder’s corpus of standing and hanging mobiles epitomize these two indelible tenets of his artistic philosophy, exhibiting a fascinating marriage between physics and art. The weight and shape of each individual element is meticulously engineered so as to allow for moments of absolute stasis and equipoise, typified in the instances when the constellation of black disks at the right arrange themselves into a grid-like organization that alludes to the children’s game after which the work is named. These moments, however, are inherently fleeting as the subtlest breath of air flows through Tic Tac Toe, encouraging its constituent parts to float and dance around one another, seemingly at random. Yet, within the apparent chaos of their individual paths, these elements ultimately succumb to Calder’s precise choreography: no matter the velocity with which the arms of Tic Tac Toe rotate and swirl, they never collide but instead continue to orbit in perfect harmony.

As is quintessential of the artist’s endlessly fascinating corpus of kinetic abstractions, Tic Tac Toe presents itself to us anew each time we encounter it. Indeed, our very actions while in its midst create the environment that precipitates its unique movements at any given time; as we enter into the present work’s atmosphere our body comes to commune directly with its sculptural configuration: as we move around it we generate the conditions of its complementary movement in response. Marcel Duchamp had been the first to use the word ‘mobile’ in 1931 to describe Calder's revolutionary concept that defied traditional sculpture by utilizing the full potential of aesthetic forms in motion through his 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.” (the artist cited in Howard Greenfield, The Essential Alexander Calder, New York, 2003, p. 67) Tic Tac Toe, executed in 1941, nine years after this groundbreaking realization, is archetypal in its unequivocal achievement of the goal which, established in Piet Mondrian’s studio, would come to serve as a basis for the entirety of Calder’s iconic exploration and redefinition of sculptural forms.