Alexander Calder
Untitled, 1947
Gouache on paper
This intimate 1947 gouache by Alexander Calder distills his iconic visual language into a small yet powerful composition. Floating biomorphic forms—rendered in bold red, yellow, black, and white—interact rhythmically against a soft, atmospheric background. The interplay of balance and motion, central to Calder’s sculptural work, finds poetic resonance here in two dimensions.
Despite its modest scale, the work captures Calder’s fascination with abstraction, color, and dynamism. Created during a prolific postwar period, Untitled demonstrates the artist’s playful yet disciplined approach to form, as well as his instinctive sense of harmony and spatial tension.
Alexander Calder was a pioneering American artist best known for inventing the mobile—kinetic sculptures that move with air currents—and for his influential contributions to abstract art. Trained as an engineer before turning to art, Calder brought a unique sense of movement, balance, and structure to modernism.
In addition to his iconic mobiles and stabiles, Calder created paintings, drawings, and gouaches that echoed the biomorphic vocabulary of his three-dimensional work. His art is characterized by vibrant color, lyrical forms, and a sense of playful equilibrium.
Calder’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Centre Pompidou, and the Whitney Museum. Today, he is regarded as one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century, bridging the worlds of engineering, sculpture, and abstraction with effortless grace.
