Collections record Beta

Maquette

1972-18-6

Painted on plywood. The top rectangle is painted white, the large one unpainted. The white section has a red circle in center. Painted on lower plywood grained surface are several shapes - on left a black amorphous shape in front of a gray triangle with a praying mantis like head cutting across white ground and on right a small white circle against the black face of a black and white pyramid, the based painted on the plywood, the top in the white.

Study completed by Calder for an 18’ by 10’ wall mural on the back patio of Stillman I, adjacent to the pool. Variations of the same design were added to two other Breuer homes commissioned by the Stillmans

Alexander Calder grew up in a family of artists. His mother studied as a painter in Paris and Philadelphia, where she met his father, a leading academic sculptor. Calder’s path to art was varied and colorful. He studied mechanical engineering, worked in a lumber camp, freelanced as an illustrator, trained as a boxer, and invented a line of children’s toys. In Paris, his work with small wire sculptures led to the creation of “Calder’s Circus,” a set of articulated animals, clowns, and acrobats that “performed” for international audiences. Calder is best known for his metal and wire mobiles and stabiles, some as large as 60 feet in height. In addition to a metal shop, Calder kept a one-room house called “La Gouacherie,” a studio where he produced gouache paintings in five colors. In 1951, the Rufus and Leslie Stillman of Litchfield commissioned Calder to complete an outside mural for their first Marcel Breuer home, known as Stillman I.

• Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976

c.1951

46 1/2" long x 19 1/4" wide

• wood
• oil