Bidspirit auction | Alexander Calder ”Four Black Crosses”

Alexander Calder ”Four Black Crosses” Painting 1961 - Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976). Ink on paper painting titled ”Four Black Crosses, ” 1961. Depicting four crosses along the right half of the work and six circles in the left. Signed and dated along the lower right. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, NY, under application #A08717. Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist; Nicholas Guppy, London; Gene Goodman Gallery, NY 1968; Dayton's Gallery 12, Minneapolis, 1968; Sotheby's Parke-Bernet, 22 January 1972, Lot 21; Private Collection; Acquired from previous by a private collector ca. 1980s; Acquired by present owner, 2006. Lot Essay: Alexander Calder is globally renowned for redefining the boundaries of modern art, seamlessly translating his radical spatial theories between two and three dimensions. Born into a family of celebrated Pennsylvania artists, Calder initially trained as a mechanical engineer before finding his true calling in the avant-garde circles of 1920s Paris. There, a transformative 1930 visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio sparked a lifelong obsession with pure abstraction and primary color. While this encounter famously catalyzed his kinetic ”mobiles, ” it equally ignited a prolific, lifelong devotion to painting and gouache, mediums that allowed him to explore form and color with unparalleled immediacy. While Calder’s sculptures activated physical space, his two-dimensional works captured that same kinetic energy on a flat plane. His paintings are vital expressions of his cosmos. Utilizing a bold, restricted palette of primary colors alongside stark blacks and whites, Calder populated his canvases with biomorphic shapes, spirals, and sunbursts. These works possess a graphic immediacy and a sense of latent motion; the flat shapes seem to vibrate against one another, mimicking the buoyant, shifting balances of his famous wind-driven mobiles. Height: 22 1/4 in x width: 15 in. Condition: The colors are bold and deep. There are no large tears or losses. Along the extreme upper right edge, there is a light horizontal crease, measuring approximately 2 3/4 inches in length. Along the lower right corner, there are a few light and small vertical creases. The sheet is toned. The sheet is lightly undulated along the central third. There are minute, scattered areas of foxing. Along the upper and lower left corners, there are small, circular areas of white toning, corresponding to areas of skimming or residual framing hinges along the verso. Some wear along the extreme deckled edges, including minute tears visible upon close inspection. There are three areas of skimming along three corners of the verso. There is a residual linen tape hinge along the lower right corner of the verso. The work is not framed.