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Dimensions: 141 3/4 by 155 1/2 by 155 1/2 in. 360 by 395 by 395 cm.
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Provenance: Stanley Cohen, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
Acquired by the present owner from the above
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Exhibited: Turin, Palazzo a Vela di Torino, Calder Retrospective, July - September 1983, cat. no. 277, p. 155, illustrated in color
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Literature: Joan Marter, Alexander Calder, New York, 1991, illustrated on cover (installation of Calder Retrospective, Turin, 1983)
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Notes: Standing mobiles provided Calder with a bridge between the more static wire sculptures of his early career and the free hanging mobiles for which he became so famous. The term 'Stabile' was coined by the Modern artist, Jean Arp, after one of Calder's first exhibitions at the Galerie Percier, Paris, in 1931, for Calder's unique, non-moving, abstract colored sculptures. The term 'Mobile', coined by Marcel Duchamp, referred to Calder's later sculptures in motion and the basic notion of equilibrium plus mobility. Small Crinkly is both of these at once - standing and mobile. With its grounded base and free flowing top, Calder found a new way to create volume without mass and motion without set limits.
Alexander Calder was born into a family of sculptors. Both his grandfather and father were prominent Philadelphia sculptors who created many public decorative sculptures. Before becoming an artist himself though, Calder trained at the Stevens Institute of Technology, earning a degree in engineering. However, after graduation, his artistic genes took over and he decided to attend the Art Student's League. After taking classes there, Calder went to Paris where he would meet artists such as Piet Mondrian, and Joan Mirò. He would also be exposed to the art of such avant-garde artists as Naum Gabo and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Although, unarguably a visit to Mondrian's studio in Paris in 1933 gave Calder the impetus to move his career forward from static circus figures and other wire sculptures, to primary colored abstraction - it was his long standing friendship with Joan Mirò which provided a sustaining influence for the artist. As Marla Prather states, "Mirò's intuitive and experimental working methods in many media were highly suited to Calder's temperament, more than what he may have perceived as Mondrian's rigorously theoretical approach to painting"(Marla Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1970, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 58). The extremely organic nature of Mirò's work opened up a world of new, abstract figuration for Calder. This however, created an artistic struggle for Calder between the abstract and the representational. Not totally one or the other, Small Crinkly is the perfect example of a mingling of Calder's early influences and his wish to meld abstraction and figuration.
Calder applied these concepts in the 1950's and 60's to building large-scale standing mobiles for the outdoors. His earlier engineering degree and classes in applied kinetics and descriptive geometry would now come in quite handy. Joan Marter notes "While Calder's knowledge of science and technology was not unique among artists of the 20th century, his training in mechanical engineering was unusual. Calder's many abstract constructions seem to be put together intuitively, but it is his successful utilization of static and kinetic elements that makes them succeed" ("The Legacy of Alexander Calder", Sculpture Magazine, July/August, 1998, vol. 17, no. 6). The outdoor works would allow the elements of the sculpture to move at the hands of mother nature out in open air. Like leaves or branches rustling in the breeze, the elements of Small Crinkly gently wave in slight gusts of wind. Joan Marter remarks about Calder's standing mobiles, "Although the range of motion is limited by the placement of kinetic elements atop the static base and by the weight of these monumental constructions, this format offered the artist exciting possibilities for allusions to fantastic animals grazing or trees with waving branches" (Joan Marter, Alexander Calder,... p. 224). Although he consistently avoided overt symbolism, Calder clearly did not mean to replace it with a literal abstraction bereft of reference to the natural world. Reacting to the wind like leaves and branches, Small Crinkly encompasses free flowing movement with grounded stability. Vivid geometric elements, both big and small, cut from industrial metals, take on a life of their own.
By the time of Calder's death in 1976, moving public sculpture - a thought that would have never occurred to Calder's grandfather when designing sculpture for Philadelphia's City Hall - had become a welcome addition to the sculptural vocabulary of artists for years to come. Artists such as Mark Di Suvero and George Rickey are indebted to Calder for his groundbreaking marriage of movement in sculpture, whereas contemporary artist Richard Serra owes much of his large scale outdoor sculptural success to Calder, who pioneered the use of modern building materials for art. Calder's innovative technology brings together mechanical engineering and inventive kinetic construction with a delightful sense of fun, making him an artist for all ages and all times. Small Crinkly is an endearing testament to this legacy.
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