âWhy must art be static?... You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an intensely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without.mes aning. It would be perfect, but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motionâ
Executed in 1961, Alexander Calderâs Quinze Feuilles Noires stands as an emphatic archetype of the union between form and movement, a revolutionary concept that dramatically reshaped the world of contemporary sculpture. Comprised of fifteen hand-shaped and painted metal sheets supported by an intricate wire framework, the mobile arcs through space in response to stimuli from its surroundings: the movement of air and the passing of t.mes . Distinguished by its impressive scale and single black hue, the present work commands its space, extending over three metres across in elegant monochrome. Suspended in a mesmeric equilibrium between weight and counterweight, Quinze Feuilles Noires stands as test.mes nt to Calderâs revolutionary experiments in abstraction.
Calderâs All-Black Mobiles in Museum collects ions
Calderâs radical approach to sculpture can be traced back to his years in Paris during the 1920s, when the artist created a unique aesthetic independent of the Parisian avant-garde movements of the t.mes . It was in Paris that he forged friendships with some of the leading figures of modern art, including Marcel Duchamp and Jean Arp, both of whom went on to coin the terminology for his objects ('mobile' and stabile,' respectively). Calderâs exposure to the Surrealist movement, which embraced chance, spontaneity, and the irrational, provided a backdrop or intellectual framework against which Calder explored singular ways of considering and experiencing space, form, and movement. His early experiments with collage and performance, such as creating small figures from found objects, wire and wood in Cirque Calder (1926-1931), showcased his talent for transforming ordinary materials into expressive, animated sculptures. This approach became the catalyst for his artistic experimentation, which continued throughout his career.
During a now-legendary visit to Piet Mondrianâs studio in 1930, Calder was struck by the environment, including the rectangles of coloured cardboard arranged on the wall for compositional experimentation, which he suggested be made to âoscillate.â The experience in the Dutch artistâs studio prompted Calderâs shift to abstraction. It was in 1931 that Marcel Duchamp first coined the word âmobileâ to describe Calderâs early, mechanized creations, but it was not until the following year that Calder composed the first hanging composition that would come to define that term. In an interview in 1932, Calder revealed his excit.mes nt at the extraordinary new creative world he was in the process of discovering:
âHow can art be realized? Out of volumes, motion, spaces bounded by the great space, the universe⊠Spaces, volumes, suggested by the smallest.mes ans in contrast to their mass, or even including them, juxtaposed, pierced by vectors, crossed by speeds. Nothing at all of this is fixed. Each element able to move, to stir, to oscillate, to come and go in its relationship with the other elements in its universe. It must not be just a fleeting âmomentâ but a physical bond between the varying events in life. Not extractions, but abstractions. Abstractions that are like nothing in life except in their manner of reacting.â
The renowned philosopher and father of existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre, once remarked that Calder âdoes not suggest movement, he captures itâ (Jean-Paul Sartre, " Calder's Mobiles," Alexander Calder: Mobiles, Stabiles, Constellations, Galerie Louis CarrĂ©, Paris, 1946: translation courtesy of Chris Turner, 2008). This succinct observation speaks to the profound effect Calderâs work had on the understanding of sculpture in the Twentieth Century. Sartre admired Calder's delicate creations over the polished bronze and gold works of his contemporaries, such as Constantin Brancusi and Fernand LĂ©ger. Where others focused on the permanence of form, Calder introduced a new dimension, transforming sculpture into a four-dimensional entity imbued with movement and t.mes .
Over the next few decades, Calder would go on to revolutionise the concept of traditional sculpture by utilising the full potential of elements in motion through the remarkable manipulation of sheet.mes tal and wire. This reached its apex in his signature hanging mobiles, which seem to drift weightlessly as they revolve through space and t.mes . Quinze Feuilles Noires is thus exemplary of Calderâs mature practice, when his power of intuition had reached such heights that allowed him to achieve such feats of engineering and artistic verve as to revolutionize the entire concept of sculpture, liberating the form from stasis and instead embracing the dynamics of motion while celebrating the possibility for organic movement.
Although Calderâs abstract works are not representational, many of his titles, usually given after completion, are indicative of natural phenomena. In Quinze Feuilles Noires, as its title implies, the fifteen black âleavesâ shift in space as if fluttered by the wind through a branch. This interest in natural forces reveals an affinity between Calderâs sculptures and the Surrealist paintings of his close friend and fellow artist Joan MirĂł. Breathtaking in its precise craftsmanship, imposing scale, and dynamic presence, Quinze Feuilles Noires stands as a test.mes nt to the technical skill and imaginative genius of Alexander Calder. Cascading in an elegant and ever-changing arc, Quinze Feuilles Noires attests to Calder's brilliance in bringing form, colour and line into the three-dimensional space inhabited by the viewer.