Alexander Calder is the artist who changed the way we think about sculpture. But he is also the artist whose creations reflect his reputation as a beloved, decent human being who continually sought to express fun and humor. Early awareness of that remarkable character proved to be the elaborate contraption he fashioned from metal wires, wood, cork, cloth, and myriad found materials and the performances he staged while in Paris between 1926 and 1931. That menagerie of Big Top Circus performers has come to be known as the earliest example of art as performance. He moved around on the floor catlike for a man his size and girth and operated cranks and pullies that activated trapeze artists, acrobats, bareback riders, and sundry clowns, trained dogs, and a ringmaster. Accompanied by music from a Victrola, he roared like a lion, dropped chestnuts behind the performing elephant and engaged a scoop to pick up the faux poop and led these figures through their elaborate paces as unselfconsciously as a ten-year-old fighting the Battle of Waterloo with toy soldiers and performing for no one but himself. The Parisian art world was fascinated. The performances were attended by the like of Picasso, Mondrian, Duchamp, Eric Satie, and John-Paul Sarte, but Calder was just as happy staging a performance for an audience of awestruck children.