ALEXANDER CALDER | Perforated Black Boomerang on Red

Perls Galleries, New York
Collection of William J. Rand, New York (acquired from the above in 1965)
Christie's, New York, 19 February 1998, Lot 56
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York (acquired from the above sale)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in June 1998

Durham, Duke University, Nasher Museum of Art, Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy, February - June 2012

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. The element moves freely and smoothly. There are minor, unobtrusive spots of loss to the paint, particularly along the edges, and most noticeably a ½-inch loss where the red legs join together and near the artist’s monogram. Under close inspection, a few pinpoint and unobtrusive scattered white and red media accretions are visible.
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.

"The upright orientation of Calder’s freestanding sculpture and the beautifully curving silhouettes of its cut and bent forms underscore the new organic strain in Calder’s art, one that alludes to forms in the natural world without being tied specifically to any one of them”
Marla Prather in Exh. Cat., Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Alexander Calder, 1898-1976, 1998, p. 136

Executed circa 1947, during Calder’s seminally important post-war period, Perforated Black Boomerang on Red is an iconic standing mobile. Perforated Black Boomerang on Red represents a moment of sculptural innovation and uninhibited creative inspiration just years after Calder’s lauded 1943 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was during the post-war period when Calder no longer was forced to limit his use of wire and aluminum because of the war efforts that he expanded upon the creation of his mobiles and stabiles. Objects from this immediate post-war period, which is considered to be Calder’s most important, reflect a deeper understanding of space and a balance of forms than seen in earlier works. 

The connection between Calder and his close friend Joan Miró is inescapable in the present work: the elegant sweeping line of the mobile element is transmuted by cutout biomorphic shapes. The mobile element floats through space, resting on a wire that extends from the red three-legged base. Calder’s use of red and organic Surrealist imagery illuminates a connection between the artist and Miró, whom Calder had first met decades earlier in Paris; their works went on to develop along entirely separate, although visually resonant, trajectories as both elevated line and color to new heights. As Calder proclaimed, “Disparity in form, color, size, weight, motion, is what makes a composition…It is the apparent accident to regularity which the artist actually controls by which he makes or mars a work” (the artist quoted in Exh. Cat.,
Whitney Museum of American Art, Calder’s Universe, New York 1976, p. 33). 

The palette of Perforated Black Boomerang on Red highlights Calder’s focus on form and color as one of the essential sculptural components. In a 1962 interview, Calder claimed, “I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red. I often wish that I’d been a fauve in 1905” (the artist quoted in Katharine Kuh, “Calder,” The Artist’s Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists, New York, 1962, pp. 38-51). Renowned for their outstanding beauty and craftsmanship, the mobiles and stabiles of Calder are
testament to his technical skill, imaginative genius, and talent for organic composition, and in these respects Perforated Black Boomerang on Red is an exquisite example from one of his most seminal periods.

This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A07936.