Collections record Beta

Needlepoint

1972-18-7

Needlepoint rug or wall hanging depicting abstract design in black, blue, orange, and cream. Cream and orange background divided by horizon line. Two black amorphous forms in top and bottom attached by thin black line. On right is a black double triangular shape in and in center a small blue double-knobbed form cutting across horizon. "CA" stitched in black in lower right corner. Canvas stapled to a wooden stretcher with "23 Ancobiliet/Glendale, NY" stamped on it three times. Edges bound with black electrical tape.

Alexander Calder designed several rugs that were worked by his wife, Louisa, as well as Rufus and Leslie Stillman of Litchfield. The Stillmans also asked Marcel Breuer, Louisa Calder, and other artists and architects in their social circle to design rugs, a number of which were exhibited by the Stillmans in New York in 1966. This example was worked by Leslie Stillman.

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.

• Stillman, Leslie

ca. 1960

23" x 32" unframed

• canvas
• wool