It is a journey through space, yes, but above all through time, the great exhibition of Alexander Calder (Lawnton, 1898 – New York, 1976) opening at MASI Lugano. A wide-ranging monograph, the most demanding that a Swiss public institution has dedicated to the American sculptor in the last fifty years: and in fact, bringing the over 30 sculptures on display required a collective effort, including almost five-year planning and loans international. The result is Calder. Sculpting Time, a refined journey of works created exclusively between 1931 and 1960 and coming from public and private collections all over the world, primarily the New York one Calder Foundation.
Alexander Calder’s Revolution
It was in his twenties when, having moved to Paris, Calder inserted himself into the Parisian avant-garde, starting to create his revolutionary Cirque Calder and wire portraits. Increasingly abstract, Calder launched himself in the 1930s on the first non-objective sculptures, the densitythe sphericalThe arch hey movements stopped (the building stands out here Croisière). And then again, the material experiments of constellationssculptures in wood and metal wire born due to the shortage of metal during the Second World War, to arrive at the glorious mobileterm coined by Marcel Duchamp for his own sculptures kinetics which are activated by the environmental conditions in which they are immersed.
Calder’s innovative and restless inspiration and the primary effect of that revolution which he accomplished in the 1930s with the introduction of the movement into a static art form emerge forcefully in the exhibition: the birth of a unprecedented temporal dimension. And here it is mobile Eucalyptus And Arc of Petals.
The article continues below
The great Alexander Calder exhibition in Lugano
In the completely open space of the first floor we can therefore observe Calder’s entire career, from the first abstractions to spherical up to a wonderful selection of mobile, Of mobile standing and of stable, term created by Jean Harp for works with “implicit movement” (the work is epic Black Mushrooms). A glance which, thanks to the large window that closes the path, flows directly into Lake Lugano in the triumph of poetics Red Lily Pads. A perfect selection, which can be seen from the world Calder expert, as well as president of the MASI board at the end of his mandate, Carmen Giménez – supported in the curatorship by Ana Mingot Comenge –, who even managed to bring the work on display Without title from 1939, exhibited for the second time in history (and never during the artist’s lifetime).
Giulia Giaume
Artribune is also on Whatsapp. Simply click here to subscribe to the channel and always be updated
