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Alexander Calder , (Jul 22, 1898–Nov 11, 1976)

Horizontal Spines

1942
54 1/4 x 50 x 22 1/2 in. (137.8 x 127 x 57.2 cm)

Medium and Support: Steel, wire, and aluminum

Credit Line: Museum purchase

Accession Number: 1943.121

Current Location: Loan

Commentary

Alexander Calder, known for the soaring abstract mobiles and stabiles of his mature career, was trained as a mechanical engineer. The son of painter Nanette Lederer and renowned sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder, he showed little interest in fine art until the 1920s when he began studying composition, painting, and drawing at the Art Students League in New York under such leading artists as John Sloan, George Luks, William Pène du Bois, and Boardman Robinson.

Calder’s early work included painting, wood carvings, andwire-sculptures—the latter which he called “drawings in space.” In 1926 he exhibited his first paintings in New York; the following year he moved to Paris with the hope to exhibit, sell, and gain critical attention. Two years later, in 1929, the exhibition, Alexander Calder Sculpture in Wood and in Wire, was mounted at the Gallerie Neumann-Nierendorf in Berlin. It contained forty wire sculptures, one mask made of tin plate, and seven wood sculptures, including Woman with Umbrella, 1929. This sculpture was given to the Addison in 1951, where it joined Calder’s dynamic mobile Horizontal Spines, 1942, purchased by the museum in 1943.

Also in the Addison collection is Calder’s father’s plaster study, Woman Cutting Toe Nails, donated to the museum in 1953 by the artist’s mother, Mrs. A. Stirling Calder.

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

The Sculptor's Approach Addison Gallery of American Art , 00/00/00 - 00/00/00
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 00/00/00 - 5/10/1965
17 Mobiles by Alexander Calder; Pictures by Maud and Patrick Morgan Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/28/1943 - 7/6/1943
Five American Sculptors: Calder, Flannagan, Lachaise, Nadelman, Lipchitz The Museum of Modern Art , 9/1/1943 - 1/16/1944
Modern Sculpture Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums , 5/12/1947 - 6/5/1947
Mobiles and Articulated Sculpture California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco , 10/2/1948 - 11/21/1948
Calder Charles Hayden Memorial Library, Hayden Gallery, MIT , 12/5/1950 - 1/14/1951
The Naked Truth and Personal Vision Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/11/1952 - 9/30/1952
Loan to St. Paul's School St. Paul's School , 1/31/1953 - 2/10/1953
Three Dimensional Works of Art from the Addison Gallery Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 3/20/1953 - 5/11/1953
Exhibition of Paintings by Patrick Morgan Lamont Art Gallery , 10/27/1953 - 11/15/1953
Sculpture Exhibition Winchester Public Library , 11/25/1953 - 12/30/1953
Shadow and Substance: The Art Film and Its Sources Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/19/1954 - 3/14/1954
Loan to Children's Room, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , 10/18/1954 - 11/15/1954
The Naked Truth and Personal Vision Addison Gallery of American Art , 3/4/1955 - 4/11/1955
Scope in Collecting [25th Anniversary Exhibition] Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/19/1956 - 12/24/1956
Living with Design Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/22/1959 - 10/23/1959
Art Across America Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art , 10/15/1960 - 12/31/1960
Alexander Calder: Sculpture, Mobiles Tate Gallery , 7/4/1962 - 8/12/1962
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/26/1963 - 12/23/1963
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/15/1966 - 10/3/1966
Roots and Promise of American Art Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/10/1967 - 3/13/1967
Contemporary Sculpture and Mobiles Wenham Historical Association and Museum , 6/12/1967 - 7/31/1967
Calder Fondation Maeght , 4/2/1969 - 5/31/1969
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/18/1969 - 10/19/1969
Nothing is Certain But Change Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/18/1975 - 5/18/1975
Alexander Calder: Artist as Engineer Committee on the Visual Arts, MIT , 1/31/1986 - 4/13/1986
Faculty Choice Show: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Photographs and Sculpture from Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/5/1988 - 7/31/1988
American Abstraction at the Addison Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/18/1991 - 7/31/1991
American Abstraction from the Addison Gallery of American Art American Federation of Arts , 2/27/1993 - 12/4/1994
Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/13/1996 - 7/31/1996
Alexander Calder: 1898-1976 National Gallery of Art , 3/29/1998 - 12/1/1998
Sculpture in Context Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/17/1999 - 7/31/1999
Calder in Connecticut Wadsworth Atheneum , 4/27/2000 - 8/6/2000
Foundations: Building the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/12/2001 - 4/1/2001
Defying Distinction: Works from the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/12/2002 - 4/14/2002
Calder: La Gravedad y La Gracia [Alexander Calder] Guggenheim Museum , 3/18/2003 - 2/18/2004
Calder / Miro The Phillips Collection , 5/2/2004 - 1/23/2005
Toward Abstraction Addison Gallery of American Art , 12/23/2005 - 3/26/2006
Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s American Federation of Arts , 9/9/2006 - 9/7/2009
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
Lines of Action: Selections from the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/28/2012 - 7/31/2012
Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic Los Angeles County Museum of Art , 9/6/2014 - 1/4/2015
Calder Lightness Pulitzer Arts Foundation , 5/1/2015 - 9/12/2015
Alexander Calder & Fischli / Weiss Fondation Beyeler , 5/29/2016 - 9/4/2016
Taking Shape: Sculpture at the Addison Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/17/2016 - 3/19/2017
Currents/Crosscurrents: American Art, 1850–1950 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/16/2020 - 3/7/2021
Learning to Look: The Addison at 90 Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/8/2021 - 2/6/2022
Calder: Sculpting Time Fondazione Museo d'arte della Svizzera Italiana , 5/5/2024 - 10/6/2024

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