ALEXANDER CALDER – PERFORMING SCULPTURE – TATE MODERN – LONDON – SCULPTURE
La note de Plac'ART: ►►►►►
Possibly one of the greatest shows in London in the Fall/Winter 2015, this exhibition encompasses the depth of Calder’s work and its evolution towards abstraction and towards incorporating movement into sculpture. The works and the curation convey a sense of intimacy, with no grand installation, but a very well orchestrated display of works in a succession of smaller rooms.
Calder’s career spanned most of the twentieth century (1898-1976). The first rooms show his wire defined figures, floating lightly in spaces rather than heavy as solid masses. The sculptures hang from the ceiling, again pioneering against traditional sculpture that was well grounded on the floor.
The exhibition recalls Calder’s encounter with abstraction, with a decisive meeting with Piet Mondrian that influences his work radically. With geometric spaces and backgrounds coming into the sculptural space, blocks of color, that purely focus on form and space.
The most interesting part of the exhibition, however, remains the evolution of Calder towards the creation of the “mobile”—a term coined by Marcel Duchamp in 1931. From his Constellations, made up pieces of painted wood holding together by steel wires, to the mobile: an elegantly balanced network of wires and painted pieces of sheet metal suspended from the ceiling. The mobile started with relatively geometric compositions, aimed at the delicate spatial balance, and grew into larger organic pieces, as he himself retire in the countryside. The mobiles become more sophisticated, with curves and balancing shapes. Leading up to the last piece of the exhibition: the beautiful Black Widow from 1948.
