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ALEXANDER CALDER (1898-1976)

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Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better. Zigzag, Sun, and Crags, painted in 1972, recalls the early morning hour of June 9, 1922 when the young seafaring adventurer Sandy (Alexander) Calder was awakened on the deck of the H. F. Alexander by the intense beams of tropical sunlight that burst across the bow. He stood, squinting against the glare, then turned his head to the west and felt a sudden rush of sensations that brought to him a cosmic resonance he had never felt before. <br> <br>“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.” <br> <br>Zignag, Sun, and Crags is not a simple memento of that experience. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of the natural world by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better.
Zigzag Sun and Crags197229 1/2 x 43 in.(74.93 x 109.22 cm) gouache and ink on paper
Provenance
Perls Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Florida, 1974

195,000

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“About my method of work: first it’s the state of mind.” – Alexander Calder

History

“It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other. Of the whole trip this impressed me most of all; it left me with a lasting sensation of the solar system.”

Zigzag, Sun, and Crags is not a memento of that experience, which took place on June 9, 1922. It is an exhilarating work that celebrates Calder’s inimitable way of imparting the wonder of nature’s dynamics by amplifying our experience of it. If, as he might wish, it brings a sense of interconnectedness and belonging as it did to him along the coast of Guatemala as a young Merchant Marine, so much the better.

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  • Alexander Calder in his studio, 1966

    Alexander Calder in his studio, 1966

  • Alexander Calder photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947

    Alexander Calder photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947

“The first inspiration I ever had was the cosmos, the planetary system.” – Alexander Calder

Calder Gouaches in Museum Collections

"Blue Half Circle" (1970), gouache and black ink on ivory wove paper, 29 1/2 in x 43 3/8 in. © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Art Institute of Chicago

“Blue Half Circle” (1970), gouache and black ink on ivory wove paper, 29 1/2 in x 43 3/8 in. © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
"Untitled" (1969), gouache on paper, 29 1/2 x 43 3/8 in. © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

“Untitled” (1969), gouache on paper, 29 1/2 x 43 3/8 in. © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
"Untitled" (1971), gouache on paper, 29 3/8 x 43 3/8 in. © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

“Untitled” (1971), gouache on paper, 29 3/8 x 43 3/8 in. © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
“Yes, I think I am a realist. Because I make what I see. It’s only the problem of seeing it. If you can imagine a thing, conjure it up in space – then you can make it, and tout de suite you’re a realist. The universe is real but you can’t see it. You have to imagine it. Once you imagine it, you can be realistic about reproducing it.” – Alexander Calder

Image Gallery

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  • Calder38824_gallery1
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  • Calder38824_gallery5
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© 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

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