Sunday, March 10, 2013

Alexander Calder: “art is the disparity that exists between form, masses and moments…”



Cover, exhibition list of works: Alexander Calder’s Mobiles and Stabiles from the Perls Galleries and Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Horwich
May 18 – August 24, 1969
Grand Rapids Art Museum
Artifacts from Versluis's collection

The following is from the preface:
Question: Which has influenced you more, nature or modern machinery?
Calder: Nature. I haven’t really touched machinery except for a few elementary mechanisms like levers and balances. You see nature and then you try to emulate it. But, of course, when I met Mondrian I went home and tried to paint. The basis of everything for me is the universe. The simplest forms in the universe are the sphere and the circle. I represent them by disks and then I vary them. My whole theory about art is the disparity that exists between form, masses and moments.… Even my triangles and spheres, but they are spheres of a different shape. (1)

  1. Katherine Kuh, The Artist’s Voice, New York: Harper & Row, 1960.

Cover: Printed invitation to Alexander Calder Memorial Ceremony, 1977
Festival 77
Vandenberg Plaza, Grand Rapids, Michigan

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the editor has approved them.