Achieving a delicate formal beauty within a refined formal vocabulary, The Red Flower from 1946 is a superb early example of the virtuosic exploration of form, motion, and color that lies at the heart of Alexander Calder’s iconic sculpture oeuvre. Suspended from an intricate wire framework, the present work epitomizes the constant desire for innovation which drove Calder to ceaseless experimentation within his work. The Red Flower is distinguished by the remarkable dual faces of its largest element – one black, one a rich, variegated shade of blue – which offer an unusually dynamic viewing experience for all who survey the work. The shade of Prussian Blue used for one side of the element is rare within Calder’s work, and it’s varied, rippling surface is uniquely compelling within the present work.
Digital Image © The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY
Art © 2021 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Further testifying to the caliber of the present work, The Red Flower was formerly held in the personal collects ion of Stephen Hahn, a legendary New York gallerist. Hahn was an expert on Cezanne, Picasso, and several other modern masters, and was a founder and early president of the Art Dealers Association. Many paintings that he sold at his gallery, or donated from his personal collects ion, now hang in some of the most important museums, institutions, and private collects ions in the world. Hahn valued innovation, color, and lyricism – qualities epitomized in The Red Flower—and Calder transformed the course of 20th Century sculpture with his ingenious, lively and poetic creations.
"It’s really just for differentiation, but I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red. I often wish that I’d been a fauve in 1905.”
DIGITAL IMAGE © THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK / ART RESOURCE, NY. art © 2021 mondrian / holtzman trust
Right: Vasily Kandinsky, No Title, 1921. Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
Digital Image Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY. Art © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
As early as 1931, Calder began to produce abstract sculptures that freely moved through space and used unconventional materials such as sheet.mes tal for his creations. He showed these works for the first t.mes at the Galerie Vignon in Paris in 1932, calling them “mobiles,” a term Marcel Duchamp coined to describe the works a year earlier. By 1946, the year in which The Red Flower was executed, Calder’s practice was fully developed—but still innovative and unpredictable. Works from this period are in the permanent collects ions of such institutions as the Broad Museum, Los Angeles; the Cincinnati Art Museum; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, amongst numerous others. By the middle of the 20th Century, Calder’s name had become synonymous with artistic originality and excellence.
CALDER’S INNOVATIVE 1940s MOBILES IN INSTITUTIONAL collects IONS
Throughout his prolific career, Calder revolutionized the ability of sculpture to connect with its environment and its viewer. Calder’s creative endeavors were widely varied, but his most salient exploration and artistic achievements resulted from his deep desire to expand the possibilities of motion in sculpture. Testifying to this desire for innovation, The Red Flower provides a uniquely dynamic experience for the viewer. The present work can be divided into three segments, containing in total eleven cascading elements. Nine of the elements are a titular red and vary in size, each small circle springing forth from the other like a growing vine. On the other side of the composition, a single yellow circle reaches skyward, as if shedding sunlight on the red discs below. It is the largest element, however, that is the most unusual. As the work turns, the viewer sees first the elegant ebony of the black pigment, and then, on the opposing side, the deep, textured Prussian Blue, rippling as if filled with energy. Calder’s lyrical experiment elegantly expresses the poetry, mastery of composition and technical excellence the artist exhibited in this important moment in his career.
