Lot 114
  • 114

Alexander Calder

Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Alexander Calder
  • Untitled
  • painted metal and wire
  • 37 by 58 by 44 in. 94 by 147.3 by 111.8 cm.
  • Executed circa 1950, this work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A09005.

Provenance

Henrique E. Mindlin, Rio de Janeiro (acquired directly from the artist)
By descent to the present owner from the above

Exhibited

Rio de Janeiro, Galeria Jean Boghici, Alexander Calder: Mobiles, Pintura, Gouaches, December 1980 - January 1981, p. 28, illustrated 
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo,  Calder no Brazil, August - October 2006, p. 120, illustrated in color
Rio de Janeiro, Paço Imperial, Calder no Brazil, November 2006 - February 2007, cat. no. 3, pp. 28-29, 50-53, 74-75 (group photo), p. 80 (group photo), p. 82 (group photo), p. 84 (group photo), illustrated in color

Condition

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. The elements move smoothly and freely. The elements exhibit some wear, resulting in minor rubbing to the paint along the edges. The black elements intentionally have a hammered texture, which is inherent to the artist's working method. The surface of the red element is slightly uneven with stable craquelure visible under close inspection.
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.

Catalogue Note

Alexander Calder met Brazilian architect Henrique Mindlin in New York in 1944, beginning a symbiotic professional relationship and personal friendship between the two men spanning several decades. Calder wrote of their meeting in his autobiography:

 “In New York in 1944, we had met a Brazilian – Henrique Mindlin. He had been intrigued by a small mobile he had seen somewhere, and wanted one for himself…I made him a similar one which could be taken to pieces – legs taken off, metal feather removed – so he could fly it to Rio without any trouble…Mindlin was very enthusiastic about my work and said that I must come to Brazil. So four years later, in 1948, having made various shipments of my work to Henrique in Rio, Louisa and I set out for Brazil.” (Alexander Calder, An Autobiography with Pictures, New York, 1966, p. 198)

During Calder’s visit to Brazil in 1948, Mindlin organized numerous events and parties for the couple to attend and a travelling exhibition of Calder’s work at the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro and then at the Museu de Arte in São Paulo. The newly built Ministry of Education, a groundbreaking archetype of modernist Brazilian architecture designed by Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, and others, provided an ideal venue for exhibiting Calder’s work. Mindlin took great care assembling the works for the show and putting together the exhibition catalogue, for which he wrote an essay praising Calder’s mobiles and linking their sublime craftsmanship to the burgeoning modernist Brazilian architecture movement: 

“Calder’s work offers extraordinary possibilities for the integration of sculpture in the architecture of our time. One must simply imagine one of his large ‘mobiles’ suspended in the portico of one of our new buildings, such as the Ministry of Education or the Institute of Reinsurance. Visualizing the work being touched by a breeze, occupying the clear space with its new rhythms, one understands not only the importance of Calder’s contributions to architecture, but especially to that architecture of the sun and open spaces, which occurs in Brazil.” (Mindlin in Exh. Cat., Rio de Janeiro, Ministério do Educaçao, e Saúde, Alexander Calder, September 1948)

In the following years, Calder and Mindlin maintained a close bond, despite the distance between Rio de Janeiro and Roxbury. Mindlin, ever determined to bring Calder’s work to a wider audience, organized his third exhibition at the Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), Rio de Janeiro, in 1959 and forecasted, “Give me some time and Rio will be taken by a Calder storm.” (Mindlin in Exh. Cat., Rio de Janeiro, Paço Imperial, Calder no Brasil, 2006) And indeed, with Mindlin’s help, Calder’s work became heavily collected by the cultural elite of Brazil. Calder would send his sculptures to Mindlin in Brazil, who would sell them for Calder. Mindlin even helped secure a number of commissions for the artist in buildings around Brazil as a complement to the new modernist architecture.

Sotheby’s is delighted to be offering Calder’s Untitled from circa 1950, which was originally gifted by the artist to Henrique Mindlin and has remained in the family’s collection ever since. Shown in a number of Calder exhibitions around Brazil, the present work is a harmoniously charming token of the meaningful and synergistic relationship between Calder and Mindlin.