Post War & Contemporary Art 
14 September 2022
Alexander Calder, Untitled - Image 1 of 5
Alexander Calder, Untitled - Image 2 of 5
Alexander Calder, Untitled - Image 3 of 5
Post War & Contemporary Art 
Alexander Calder, Untitled - Image 1 of 5
Alexander Calder, Untitled - Image 2 of 5
Alexander Calder, Untitled - Image 3 of 5
121

Alexander Calder 1898–1976

Untitled

1933
colored ink and graphite on paper 23 h × 30½ w in (58 × 77 cm)
estimate: $75,000–100,000
result: $75,000
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Signed and dated to verso ‘Calder 1933’. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application no. A00778.
provenance: Collection of Tristan Tzara, Paris (likely acquired directly from the artist in 1933) | Private Collection | Dain Gallery, New York | Private Collection, New York | Christie's, New York, Contemporary Art, 22 February 1996, Lot 1 | Private Collection, New York | Pace Gallery, New York | Private Collection
exhibited: Calder, 2 April - 31 May 1969, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France | The Surrealists, 11 November - 21 December 1969, Byron Gallery, New York | Alexander Calder: Early Works, c. 1927–1944, 12 December 1971 - 31 January 1972, Taft Museum, Cincinnati | Tel est Calder, 8 February - 16 March, 1997, Galereie du Golf-Hôtel Les Hauts de Gstaad-Saanenmöser, Gstaad, Switzerland | Motion, Emotion: The Art of Alexander Calder, 21 October - 4 December 1999, O’Hara Gallery, New York | The Surreal Calder, 30 September 2005 - 8 January 2006, The Menil Collection, Houston (traveling exhibition) | Calder: Space in Play, 22 October - 19 December 2014, James Goodman Gallery, New York
literature: Calder, L’Artists et L’Oeuvre, Calder, Sweeney and Lelong, pg. 49 Alexander Calder, 1898–1976, Baal-Teschuva, pg. 26 Calder, Fondation Maeght exhibition catalog, pg. 129, no. 39 The Surrealists, Byron Gallery exhibition catalog, pg. 25, no. 8 Alexander Calder: Early Works, c. 1927–1944, Taft Museum exhibition catalog, pg. 6 Motion, Emotion: The Art of Alexander Calder, O’Hara Gallery exhibition catalog, pg. 15 The Surreal Calder, The Menil Collection exhibition catalog, pg. 47

This work will ship from Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey.

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Surreal Encounters

Alexander Calder and Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara


Originally from the collection of the hugely influential avant-garde poet, writer, and artist Tristan Tzara, this early Alexander Calder drawing is especially notable for its relationship to the burgeoning Surrealist movement of the era. A seminal figure of Dadaism, Tzara most likely acquired the work directly from Calder in 1933. By this time, Tzara had become firmly enmeshed with the Surrealist milieu, though only after a tumultuous period of fierce intellectual conflict centered around defining and refining the philosophies of both Dadaism and Surrealism. Tzara had moved to Paris in 1919, where he worked as an editor of the journal Littérature alongside André Breton. As collaborators, the two figures were initially in alignment, but a rift grew that eventually led to the decline of Dadaist activity and its "death," formally marked by André Breton with his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto. 

Despite their major disagreements, Tzara and Breton reconciled in 1929 and Tzara would go on to work within the Surrealist currents of that moment. As Hans Richter put it, "Surrealism devoured and digested Dada." It was in this environment that Tzara would have encountered a young Calder; though not first and foremost associated with Surrealism, Calder worked adjacent to these influences and was close with Breton, Joan Miró, and Jean Arp, among others. Surrealism's influence upon the nascent artist was examined in-depth in the 2005 exhibition The Surreal Calder, of which this drawing was a part. 

Alexander Calder 1898–1976

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Born in 1898 to Nanette Lederer Calder and Alexander Stirling Calder, a painter and a sculptor respectively, Alexander Calder was encouraged to be creative and make things by hand. As a child he made gifts for his family and jewelry for his sister’s dolls. In 1915, Calder attended Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey graduating in 1919 with a degree in mechanical engineering because his parents didn’t want him to struggle as an artist. After completing school, Calder work a myriad of jobs including draftsman for Edison Company, a staff member at Lumber magazine, coloring maps for a hydraulics engineer and timekeeper for a logging camp.

In the spring of 1922 Calder attended night classes in drawing and the following year he decides to pursue a career as a painter. By 1925 Calder had his first art exhibition and in 1926 he made his first sculptures out of wood and wire. Calder relocated to Paris, socializing with the Parisian avant-garde, and started making mechanical toys and abstract sculptures. His kinetic works, a departure from traditional sculpture, became known as ‘mobiles’, a term coined by Marcel Duchamp.

Calder’s artistic endeavors ranged from mobiles to stabiles (static sculptures) both small and large, to jewelry and paintings. Today his works can be found in numerous museum collections around the world including The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Auction Results Alexander Calder

ALEXANDER CALDER, Quatre Blancs | Wright20.com

Alexander Calder

Quatre Blancs

estimate: $500,000–700,000

result: $826,250
ALEXANDER CALDER, Untitled (Demi-cône) | Wright20.com

Alexander Calder

Untitled (Demi-cône)

estimate: $600,000–800,000

result: $805,000
ALEXANDER CALDER, Red Tail | Wright20.com

Alexander Calder

Red Tail

estimate: $500,000–700,000

result: $655,200
ALEXANDER CALDER, Yellow Beastie | Wright20.com

Alexander Calder

Yellow Beastie

estimate: $300,000–500,000

result: $579,600

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