Motion, and its various potential qualities – fluidity, grace, gesture, spontaneity, change and dynamism – are at the core of Alexander Calder’s explorations of sculptural kinetics. Crag with White Flower and White Discs, created in 1974, epitomizes Calder’s affinity and curiosity for capturing movement in the formerly static genre of sculpture. The monumental yet delicately balanced sculpture was created for Calder’s New York exhibition “Crags and Critters of 1974”, which featured either ‘crags’, i.e. mountain peaks; or alien-like ‘critters’. Supported by a dark monolithic base, the work is a dramatically imposing yet whimsically enchanting synthesis of precision, balance, and movement, combining the elegant kinetics of the artist’s mobiles with the majestic grandeur of his ‘stabiles’. Created in 1974 when Calder was aged 76, Crag with White Flower and White Discs evokes a biomorphic universe with both celestial and terrestrial forms, presenting a theatrical dynamism reminiscent of Calder’s earliest circus figures. In the 1970s, many of Calder’s works ventured into the otherworldly realm of futurism and science fiction, as seen in Obus, 1972 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Calling forth mountains and flora, stars and planets into a perfectly, delightfully aligned universe, Crag with White Flower and White Discs perfectly embodies the great artist’s extraordinary synthesis of the painterly and sculptural idioms, exemplifying his unparalleled ignition of sensory experience.

Calder was born in Pennsylvania, USA, in 1898 to a family of artists: his father and grandfather were each renowned sculptors, and his mother was a portrait painter. Determined to pave his own way, Calder experimented with unconventional methods and mediums, challenging the classical training of his forefathers in order to forge a radical artistic language. His is not an art laden with anguish, nor ruled by the confines of tradition; rather, Calder’s sculptures are imbued with a revitalising sense of dynamism, vigour and ingenuity, reflective of the artist’s personality. The art of Calder, once remarked Marcel Duchamp, is “pure joie de vivre. [It] is the sublimation of a tree in the wind” (Marcel Duchamp, ‘Alexander Calder’, collects ion of the Société Anonyme, New Haven 1950, online). Before embarking on a career as an artist, Calder enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, to study mechanical engineering. He was a talented mathematician, and his four-year degree instilled him with a thorough mastery of tools, industrial design, and the characteristics of metal. While these qualities later played a role in the creation of his sculptures, Calder’s approach to art was intuitive, capturing the spontaneity of nature and immersing its viewer in an enthralling visual experience. As curator Penelope Curtis asserts, “Calder will find a way of making the spell last, embedding the unpredictable, contradictory, (and often syncopated) movements of animals and people into his works” (Penelope Curtis, “Performance of Post-performance”, in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern, Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, 2015, p. 17).

Following his aesthetic epiphany about three-dimensional art while visiting Piet Mondrian’s studio in 1930, Calder famously stated, “Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely existing arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without.mes aning. It would be perfect but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion” (the artist cited in “Objects to Art Being Static, So He Keeps It in Motion,” in New York World-Telegram, 11 June 1932). As one of the most important sculptors of the Twentieth Century, Calder greatly influenced a generation of artists through his pioneering investigations into kinetic sculpture. He also enjoyed a close and fruitful friendship with the Surrealist painter Joan Miró. Although their works developed along separate trajectories, they often experimented with the same vibrant palette and simple economy of line: indeed, the present standing mobile could almost have sprung from the canvas of one of Miró’s biomorphic abstract paintings, or vice versa. In title and composition alike, Crag with White Flower and White Discs simultaneously evokes a natural mountain form and its own intrinsic abstract materiality. Dreamily it flits between the two, in a triumphant celebration of a singular marriage of art, science, and the natural world. As succinctly observed by Jed Perl: “Although Calder was not quite the first or the last artist to set sculpture in motion, he sent volumes moving through space with more conviction and imaginative power – with more eloquence and elegance – than any other artist has. These are the works of a poet, but a poet guided by the steady instincts of a scientist” (Jed Perl in Exh. Cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Calder and Abstraction, from Avant-Garde to Iconic, 2013, p. 36). Almost free-floating on the delicate wires that guide their suspension, the white and red elements of the present sculpture proscribe a micro-cosmos: a galaxy of ethereal white orbs, tapering off into downward arcing sprays, weighted against sun-like red orbs. The flurry of white circles also recalls the delicate, wintery shapes of a flower. Each unique in shape, the ephemeral petals are an elegant reminder to the viewer of both the spectrum of their individuality as well as the beauty of their aggregation. Nature, like a sculpture of perfect equilibrium and balance, is revealed as mysterious and unknowable, intimate and enigmatic.

「藝術為何必須靜止？且看抽象藝術，無論是雕塑還是繪畫，都只是由平面、色域、團塊構成，完全不含意義。若非總是靜止不動，它就是完美的。雕塑的下一個探索方向就是動態。」

亞歷山大・考爾德

動態，及其連帶的流暢、優雅、姿態、自發性、變化、活力等潛在特質，都是亞歷山大・考爾德雕塑動力學研究的重心。雕塑在過去被歸類為靜止藝術，考爾德在1974年創作了《峭壁上的白花與白金屬片》，充分反映出他在捕捉雕塑動態方面的興趣和好奇心。本作外形高聳，各個元素巧妙平衡，是考爾德為紐約展覽「峭壁與魔精1974」而專門構思。展覽展出的雕塑一是形似山嶽之巔的「峭壁」，或是狀如外星生物的「魔精」。本作以單一黑色基座為主幹，巍峨高峻，氣勢逼人，但仍流露出靈動的魅力，它集精準、平衡、動態於一身，將考爾德動態雕塑的優美力學和靜態雕塑的雄健威儀融為一體。這座雕塑創作於1974年，當時考爾德已年屆七十六歲高齡，作品以外星和地球上的形態，建構出一個天馬行空的生態宇宙，當中蘊藏的戲劇張力使人想起他最早期的馬戲團百態雕塑。七十年代，考爾德有很多作品涉足未來主義和科幻領域，例如華盛頓國家美術館收藏的1972年雕塑《Obus》。本作將天地萬物間的山峰花木、日月星辰井然有序地撮合在一起，從中可見考爾德糅合繪畫和雕塑藝術的深厚造詣，而且極擅長觸發觀者的感官體驗。

考爾德在1898年生於美國賓夕法尼亞州的一個藝術家庭，祖父和父親都是知名雕塑家，母親是肖像畫家。在這樣的家庭背景下，考爾德決心闖出自己的路，嘗試使用新穎的方式和媒材，挑戰先輩所接受的古典訓練，為求錘煉出顛覆傳統的藝術語彙。他的風格不會強說愁苦，亦不墨守成規，反而活力盎然，充滿勃勃生機和巧思妙想，道盡藝術家的個性。杜尚曾經形容考爾德的藝術是「純粹的生活樂趣。[它]是樹木在風中形象的昇華」（馬塞爾・杜尚，〈亞歷山大・考爾德〉，《Société Anonyme 藝術收藏》，紐海文，1950年，網絡來源）。在成為藝術家之前，考爾德曾在新澤西州霍博肯的史蒂文斯理工學院（Stevens Institute of Technology）學習機械工程。他在數學方面極有天分，四年的深造使他熟習各種工具、工業設計和不同金屬的特性。這些知識對之後的雕塑創作顯然大有裨益，不過考爾德卻是憑直覺創造藝術，用雕塑捕捉大自然的自生自發，帶領觀者走進一段引人入勝的視覺饗宴。正如策展人彭妮露・柯提斯（Penelope Curtis）所言，「考爾德將動物和人那不可預測、自相矛盾（而且經常毫無規律可循）的動靜融入作品當中，千方百計讓魔力延續下去」（彭妮露・柯提斯撰，〈演出後的演出〉，倫敦，泰特現代美術館，《亞歷山大・考爾德：表演雕塑》展覽圖錄，2015年，頁17）。

1930年，考爾德在參觀皮耶・蒙德里安的工作室時忽而靈光一閃，在立體藝術美學方面生出頓悟。他說過一句名言：「藝術為何必須靜止？且看抽象藝術，無論是雕塑還是繪畫，都只是由平面、色域、團塊構成，完全不含意義。若非總是靜止不動，它就是完美的。雕塑的下一個探索方向就是動態」（亞歷山大・考爾德，引述自〈他反對靜止的藝術，於是就讓它們動起來〉，《紐約世界電訊報》，1932年6月11日）。考爾德是二十世紀最重要的雕塑家之一，由他發揚光大的動態雕塑對一整代藝術家影響深遠。他與超現實主義畫家胡安・米羅交情深厚，兩人風格迥然，但卻經常用相似的明艷色彩和凝練線條來創作，本作彷彿就是從米羅滿佈生物形態的抽象畫裡縱身而出，相反，考爾德的動態雕塑彷彿也能化身作米羅的抽象畫。無論是作品名字還是構造，本作喚起人們對大自然山嶽形象的想像，以及對作品固有抽象本質的思考。它在兩者之間巧妙地游移，見證藝術、科學和自然的非凡結合。藝評家杰德・珀爾（Jed Perl）曾經簡明扼要地概括道：「雖然考爾德不是第一個、也不會是最後一個讓雕塑動起來的藝術家，但是他舉重若輕，做起來比任何人都有著更堅定的信念和更豐富的想像，並且更傳神、優雅。這是詩人的傑作，不過這位詩人卻擁有科學家般沉穩的直覺」（杰德・珀爾，洛杉磯郡藝術博物館，《考爾德與抽象風格：從前衛走向經典》展覽圖錄，2013年，頁36）。本作中的白色和紅色金屬片懸掛在纖細的絲線一端，幾乎有如漂浮在半空，構成一個微縮小宇宙——白色的天外星體聚合成一個星系，它們的體積隨著排列逐漸縮小，劃出一道有如天女散花般的弧線；純白星系的另一端，垂墜著恆星般的火紅圓球。雕塑上的一簇白色圓形也令人聯想起冬日裡脆弱、孤寂的花朵。代表花瓣的金屬片形狀不一，它們提醒觀者，每塊花瓣的個性大相徑庭，不過聚集在一起時又能散發出奪魂之美。大自然神秘莫測，讓人感到近在咫尺、卻又難以捉摸，一如處於完美平衡狀態的雕塑。