亞歷山大·考爾德

藝術家
現藏家1933年購自藝術家

紐約，朱利恩·利維畫廊，〈考爾德：活動抽象雕塑〉，1932年5月-6月

皮茨菲爾德，伯克郡博物館，〈現代繪畫與雕塑：亞歷山大·考爾德、喬治·L·K·莫里斯、卡爾弗特·科吉歇爾、阿爾瑪·德格斯多夫·摩根〉，1933年8月，品號25或26

皮茨菲爾德，伯克郡博物館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德〉，1933年8月，頁碼不詳

紐約，現代藝術博物館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德〉，1943年9月-1944年1月，57頁，品號32（內文）

劍橋，查爾斯·海登紀念圖書館新美術館，〈考爾德〉，1950年12月-1951年1月

聖保羅，現代藝術博物館，聖保羅現代藝術博物館雙年展，1953年12月-1954年2月，品號12

紐約，所羅門‧R‧古根海姆美術館；多倫多，多倫多美術館；德梅因，德梅因藝術中心；密爾瓦基，密爾瓦基藝術中心；聖路易，華盛頓大學美術館；巴黎，國家現代藝術博物館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德回顧展〉，1964年11月-1965年1月，品號130（名為《弧形與四方形》）

皮茨菲爾德，伯克郡博物館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德的活動雕塑〉，1966年7月

辛辛那提，塔夫特博物館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德早期作品，約1927-1944年〉，1971年12月-1972年1月，8頁載圖

芝加哥，當代藝術博物館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德回顧展，1925-1974年作品〉，1974年10月-12月

慕尼黑，藝術之家；蘇黎世，美術館，〈考爾德〉，1975年5月-11月，52頁，品號14（內文）

都靈，維拉體育館，〈考爾德回顧展〉，1983年7月-9月，85頁，品號140，載圖

劍橋，巴卡勒雕塑館，〈亞歷山大·考爾德：工程師藝術家〉，1986年1月-4月，2頁載圖

紐約，惠特尼美國藝術博物館；巴黎，國家現代藝術博物館，龐畢度中心，〈考爾德：巴黎時期1926-1933年〉，2008年10月-2009年7月，25頁，品號201，載彩圖

〈藝術品是靜止的，所以他讓它動起來〉，《紐約世界電訊報》，1932年6月11月（內文）

阿納托爾·雅科夫斯基，〈亞歷山大·考爾德〉，《藝術筆記》，第8期，品號5-6，1933年，244頁載圖

〈博物館購藏考爾德的動態雕塑〉，《藝術文摘》，第32期，1934年11月1日，16頁載圖

H.H.阿納森，《考爾德》，普林斯頓，1966年，42頁（內文）（名為《弧形與四方形》）

伯尼斯·溫斯洛·曼斯威茨，《亞歷山大·考爾德：圖片文獻》，大急流城，1969年，30頁（內文）（名為《弧形與四方形》）

偉恩·安德森，《美國雕塑進行中：1930/1970年》，紐約，1975年，9頁，品號6，載圖

瓊·M·馬特，《亞歷山大·考爾德》，紐約，1991年，140頁，品號93，載圖

《巴黎／紐約：1908-1968年》，巴黎，1991年，523頁載圖

展覽圖錄，米蘭，《考爾德》，1983年，85頁，品號140，載圖（名為《弧形與四分之一圓形》）

展覽圖錄，華盛頓哥倫比亞特區（及巡展），《亞歷山大·考爾德1898-1976年》，1998年，72頁載圖；339頁載圖（現代藝術博物館展覽現場）

展覽圖錄，東京，日本藝術文化協會，《亞歷山大·考爾德：動態與顏色》，2000年，164頁載圖

路易斯·安德森·艾倫，《查爾斯頓的女學者：蘿拉·布拉格的人生與事業》，哥倫比亞，2001年，177頁（名為《弧形與四分之一圓形》）

展覽圖錄，洛代夫，洛代夫博物館，《考爾德：水粉、雕塑、素描及掛氈》，2003年，19頁載圖

展覽圖錄，杜塞爾多夫，北萊茵及西法倫藝術收藏館，《亞歷山大·考爾德：動態的前衛》，2013年，86頁載圖

威廉·F·皮納爾，《大都會教育的世故：對公共服務的熱忱》，紐約，2009年，88頁（名為《弧形與四分之一圓形》）

阿爾諾·皮耶，《考爾德：動態與真實》，巴黎，2009年，150-151頁載圖

展覽圖錄，亞琛，路德維希藝術博物館，《南希·格雷夫斯計劃及特別嘉賓》，2013年，161頁載圖

亞歷山大·S·C·羅維爾（編），《藝術筆記》，N°1，2015年，26頁載圖；100頁載圖

This sculpture is in very good condition overall. Please contact the Contemporary Art Department at +1 (212) 606-7254 for the report prepared by Jackie Wilson of Wilson Conservation, LLC.
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.

Perfectly poised in a dynamic dialogue of form, line, and motion, Double Arc and Sphere from circa 1932 is an exceptionally rare embodiment of Alexander Calder’s revolutionary creative vision in its earliest and purest form. A historic exemplar of the artist’s career-defining output of the early 1930s, the present work is one of a limited group of motorized sculptures the artist produced in these transformative years; the earliest iterations of Calder’s career-long investigation of the modernist canon within three-dimensional space, it was these intricately mechanized constructions that first prompted Duchamp to describe Calder’s sculptures as “mobiles.” Testifying to their significance, examples of the early motorized sculptures are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., amongst other prestigious institutions; indeed, in its juxtaposition of a single red sphere with a curved, S-shaped wire, the present work reprises the form of Half–circle, Quarter-circle and Sphere, a 1932 motorized sculpture in the collection of Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Held in the collection of the Berkshire Museum of Art since 1933, Double Arc and Sphere has been included a number of seminal exhibitions of Calder’s work, including the early survey of the artist’s work at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1943-1944, the retrospective exhibition organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1964-1965, and, most recently, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exploration of the artist’s early output in their 2008-2009 exhibition Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933 in New York. Presenting a highly sophisticated approach to the problem of abstract design in motion, Double Arc and Sphere represents Calder’s liberation from the static, figurative forms which had defined canonical sculpture, precipitating a fundamental shift in the development of sculpture in the Twentieth Century.

Emphatically testifying to Calder’s exceptional technical dexterity, the early mechanized sculptures represent the culmination of the groundbreaking artistic experimentation that marked the artist's preceding and highly formative period in Paris. In his subjective, ingenious approach to mechanization, Calder went beyond the suggestion of motion and satirical machine-like structures in such Dada and Surrealist masterworks as Paul Klee’s Twittering Machine, 1922 and Marchel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912 and The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even, 1920; describing Calder’s sculptural practice in his essay introducing the artist’s 1931 show at Galerie Percier, renowned modernist Fernand Leger described: “Looking at these new works- transparent, objective, exact- I think of Satie, Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Brancusi, Arp- those unchallenged masters of unexpressed and silent beauty. Calder is of the same line.'' (Exh. Cat., Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, Alexander Calder, 1898-1976, 1998, p. 70)

Immediately following its execution, Double Arc and Sphere was included in a 1933 exhibition of Calder’s work at The Berkshire Museum of Art; subsequently purchased by Berkshire Museum director Laura Bragg for the permanent collection, the present work was one of the very first Calder sculptures to be acquired by an institutional collection. Bragg, one of the first American museum directors to recognize Calder’s genius, eloquently described the allure of the present work, reflecting: “They succeed in giving freshly creative form of motion devoid from representation, whether or not they are the introduction of a new art form, I am sure they have real significance. I watched with curiosity their effect upon the general public. People sit quietly before them, apparently stilled and quieted by something, perhaps merely by the rhythm of the movement, but we have found it easy to make a Sunday afternoon crowd understand ‘abstract’ motion where before they would be blank before an abstract painting.” (Louise Anderson Allen, A Bluestocking in Charleston: The Life and Career of Laura Bragg, Columbia, 2001, p. 177) From a pivotal early moment in the artist’s celebrated sculptural practice, Double Arc and Sphere is a definitive testament, not only to Alexander Calder's technical skill, imaginative genius and talent for dynamic formal compositions, but also his ability to breathe life into that which was previously inanimate.