The Surreal Calder by Mark Rosenthal
with a chronology by Alexander S.C. Rower
4to. pp. 156. profusely illustrated. bibliography. boards. New York: Yale University Press & The Menil Foundation, [2005].
Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Surreal Calder Organized by the Menil Collection.
New.
ISBN-10: 0300114362 / ISBN-13: 9780300114362
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The artistic parentage of Alexander Calder (1898–1976) consists of Marcel Duchamp, who provided the name of and concept for the mobile; Piet Mondrian, who introduced him to pure abstraction; and Joán Miró, who communicated the central theses of Surrealism. Yet despite these early influences and the role Calder played during the formative years of the Surrealist movement, including being shown in the defining 1936 Exposition surréaliste d'objets in Paris, he has long been separated from those beginnings in the public consciousness. This publication examines his work in the context from which he emerged as an artist, exploring his linear flights of fancy, fantastical creatures, biomorphic forms, and his celestial-inspired constellations. Includes a detailed chronology of Calder’s Surrealist years and a selected bibliography.