Design 
23 April 2025
Design 
149

After Alexander Calder

Balloons tapestry

1974
hand-woven maguey fiber 68½ h × 48½ w in (174 × 123 cm)
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $30,480
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Woven signature and date to lower right ‘CA 74’. This work is from the edition of 100 published by CAC Publications and Bon Art, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

This work will ship from Chicago, Illinois.

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5 Things to Know about Alexander Calder's Tapestries

Working with textiles was not new to Calder. As his grandson recalled: “He made his own neckties. He also drew designs directly on canvas that my grandmother then hooked into rugs by hand.”

Calder had a studio in Saché, near France’s L’Atelier Raymond Picaud, and was introduced to their master weaver, Pierre Baudouin, by his artist friend Léon Gischia.

First produced by Picaud and later by Pinton Frères, most of his tapestries were made with Australian wool dyed to Calder's specifications.

Each square yard of tapestry took a month to produce.

Calder's tapestries were featured in his retrospectives at the Guggenheim Museum, New York in 1964 and the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris in 1965, and were the subject of an exhibition at the Whitney Museum, New York in 1971.

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