Calder’s Rewarding Circus

(sorry for the poor image - hard to photograph work behind glass)

I suspect you all have a memory from childhood that has remained with you, impacting your life in unexpected ways. For me, seeing the Calder Circus exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1972 is one such memory. Alexander Calder(1898-1972) created his whimsical performing circus in 1926, composed of 55 interactive sculptures. A film done in 1961, “Calder’s Little Circus” shows him performing the circus and is a treat to watch (be forewarned his language is hard to understand). He offered his work to the Whitney in 1970, and the museum hosted a once only show of the entire circus. Now the works are too fragile to be displayed, and have not been on view since then.

Calder was an American born artist who lived both in France and Connecticut. He was educated as a mechanical engineer, and during his young adulthood, he lived in Paris. There he became fascinated with a circus, modeling his interactive circus art on many of the performers he befriended. He would use this circus for many years as entertainment – “performance art” well before the idea even existed. He also famously created the mobile, and all mobiles you see today are descendants of his creation. He was a prolific artist, and created a huge amount of sculptures, domestic tools, jewelry, wire art, mobiles, and paintings. (The foundation for his work www.Calder.org has many wonderful examples.)

I purchased a poster at that 1972 show of his lion inside its boxcar, and that work hung in my bedroom during my childhood.

We had just purchased our current home in 1999, a large farm house originally built by Quaker Oats, when I found this original Circus lithograph by Calder and purchased it. This piece became the focal point of our family room. Over the years I have added artwork and furniture to compliment the lithograph’s 1970s vibe and colors, and many thrift store and flea market items have found a home by the Calder. 

Starting in 1999, I worked with a group of women to create a “Famous Artists” volunteer program for our elementary school. We were colloquially referred to as the “Art Moms”. Many of the women were keen on including Impressionist artists which were very popular at the time. At a certain point I put my foot down and insisted we needed to include Calder, among a few other artists (Vermeer, Mondrian, Rembrandt!). I located another print of the lion poster from the Whitney show, and this work still hangs and is used in the local schools to introduce the students to Calder’s artwork.

While I really cannot know what impact those lessons had on over twenty years of students, I recently was at a book club meeting where the topic of Art Moms came up. A younger member was discussing a quick trip to Paris with her adolescent son. The weather had been awful so they spent time in some of the many museums in Paris. She mentioned how astonished she was that her son knew a great deal about many works of art. When she asked, he said he had learned all about them in his elementary classes with the “Art Moms”. Dang was I touched, and while she had no idea I had been instrumental in that education, I felt my efforts were well rewarded!