“humour was a high artform in Paris in the 20’s” Alexander Rower

Calder's Circus Dog

“One of the misconceptions about the circus was that it was fun and great, but in reality, humor was a high art form in the late ’20s in Paris,” said Alexander S. C. Rower, a grandson of Calder and director of the Calder Foundation, which manages the artist’s estate. “So much so that when Calder performed his circus, all the circus critics came and reviewed it, giving it great dignity instead of minimizing it as something for children, which it wasn’t.”

 

After 1930, however, Mr. Rower said, “performing the circus was not really his thing.” Like a wily barker, Calder deployed his circus to lure his audience to an attraction that he hoped would seal his reputation: his wire portraits. Modeled on famous personalities like Calvin Coolidge, Kiki de Montparnasse and Josephine Baker, whose sensuous full-length likeness was composed of spirals and whorls, these suspended sculptures softly shimmied as they caught the air. Later came his moving abstractions, the stabiles and mobiles, a collision of art and engineering.”

New York Times

Calder stabile on George Street, Sydney