Alexander Calder

Galerie Maeght, Paris
Studio Marconi, Milan (acquired from the above in 1971)
Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin
Waddington Galleries, Ltd., London
James Goodman Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Houston (acquired by 1983)
Thence by descent to the present owner 

Paris, Galerie Maeght, Calder: Gouaches et Totems, February 1966, cat. no. 6, p. 26, illustrated
Geneva, Galerie Jan Krugier & Cie, Alexander Calder, June 1966, cat. no. 16, pl. 1, illustrated
Nièvre, Chateau de Ratilly, Calder/Bazaine, June - September 1970, pl. 10, illustrated

This work is in excellent condition. Very close inspection shows a very small number of minute and extremely faint rub marks and specks of wear to the points of contact of the hanging loops of the moving elements, as to be expected with the nature of the work. There are 3 extremely faint and short 1/4 inch hairline rub marks to the largest white element of the lowest group of hanging elements. Examination under raking light shows a small number of very short hairline rub marks towards the bottom of one of the corners of the black base, and evidence of a minute 1/8 inch speck of wear to the bottom extreme edge, which appears to have been expertly inpainted.
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.
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It was as a young man in the early 1930s that Alexander Calder dramatically impacted the course of art history. At that time, he debuted his gracefully suspended and utterly abstract mobiles. Set in motion by air currents, these delicate, active sculptures were not only pioneering in design and concept, but they were also the first examples of what would become Calder’s lifelong and unfaltering artistic vision. As a result, Calder is today recognized as one of the only artists to both invent and practice his own category of art. In the decades following Calder’s first experiments with kinetic sculptures, he ceaselessly continued to push the boundaries of the mobile design, and the evolution of the mobile is evidenced in both its eventual metamorphosis into a vast series of static sculptures (aptly deemed “stabiles”), as well as later incarnations, such as Martigues (1966), brilliant fusions of the two models known as “standing mobiles.” Created during the last decade of his life, the present work is an unmatched example of Calder’s dedication to his craft and to his astonishing and eternal inventiveness.

Art historian Albert Elsen's insight is indeed correct when he wrote, “In the late art of Alexander Calder one experiences the artist’s incessant work to achieve new victories of creativity over habit. The savoring of his successes is comparable to tasting vintage wine, enjoying the resonance a hard life has given the voice of Pearl Bailey or the masterly understated performance of Sir Laurence Olivier.” (Exh. Cat., Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1974, n.p.)  As Elsen sees it, Calder’s incredible, sustained output is the result of what might be considered a “romance” between Calder and his material. In Martigues, specifically, both the artist’s respect for and masterful command over the medium—painted metal and wire—is illustrated: he skillfully pairs light, airy metal shapes at the top of the sculpture with a dark, angular base below. Here, Calder’s legendary gift for creating a perfectly balanced composition is demonstrated in a twofold fashion: not only is the group of white cut-outs effortlessly balanced by the larger red oval, but the mobile they comprise is spectacularly poised upon the narrow tip of the stabile. Calder believed adamantly in the fruitfulness of disparity. For him, discrepancy in the color, shape and size of a composition’s elements was not a hindrance, but rather, a welcomed challenge of balance, as well as a promising source of creativity. Because of this, Calder was, to a large extent, a juggler of sculptural parts, or as Henri Matisse referred to him, a “magician.”  Of Matisse’s designation of Calder as such, Jed Perl writes, “This salute from one of the founding fathers of modern art should not be taken lightly. A magician’s work strikes the audience as smooth, seamless, almost effortless… And this is the way many of Calder’s visual wonders affect a museumgoer, as both inevitable and astonishing.” (Jed Perl, Calder: Sculptor of Air, Milan, 2009, p. 17)

Martigues’ flurry of white abstract shapes, though they outwardly appear spontaneous are, as if by magic, neatly counterbalanced by the single red element. Mysteriously,  this standing mobile subtly calls to mind a sort of indefinite scenic picture. While personal interpretation of abstract sculptures like Martigues remains the realm of each individual viewer, it is indisputable that many of Calder’s pieces are infused with references to the natural world. Here, one might see a formation of birds in the v-shaped gathering of white elements, while the circular quality of the counterweight could be considered an abstract sun. Are these white shapes of metal like sea birds flying over a marina at sunset or at sunrise? This reading is further evoked by the title of the piece, which takes its name from a scenic seaside village in the South of France. In 1953, a little over a decade before Martigues was rendered, Calder and his wife Louisa rented a house in Aix-en-Provence, and for the rest of his life, they continued to spend at least half of each year enjoying the beauty and splendor of that part of the world.

These colored flights of fancy anchored to their solid black foundation are also the result of the profound influence Calder’s European contemporaries had on his artistic point of view, namely master painters Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miró. On the most basic level, Calder’s purposely limited color palette—white, black and red primarily—echoes that of the latter Catalan master. Calder’s use of floating abstract forms in space, meanwhile, is equally ingrained in the experimentalist perspectives of both men. That is to say, like those of Kandinsky and Miró, Calder’s oeuvre is fundamentally informed by the relationships of lines and shapes in space, only Calder’s investigation is cleverly and inimitably manifested in three dimensions. Calder’s unlikely preference for seeking inspiration in painting, rather than his own medium of sculpture, is explained by Elsen, who writes, “Calder’s art depends upon simple suppositions: traditional definitions of sculpture and artistic categories be damned; other sculptors offer nothing worth stealing, only certain painters do [Miró, Klee, Goya and Matisse chiefly]; the heavens are a model worth mimicking; sculpture should appear free of gravity and be able to move; solid sculptural form may be flat, but all sculpture should be painted; and, whether scintillating or solemn, sculpture must be a joy to look at.” (Exh. Cat., Chicago, Ibid. n. p.) The product of years of stylistic refinement, Martigues epitomizes Calder’s “suppositions” to a truly remarkable degree. But most of all, it marvelously induces the joy Elsen references; incorporative of sharp and elegant shapes alike, it tests the eye, defies the senses and ultimately marvels with its magic.