Bracelet
4 x 5 1/2 x 2 inchesBracelet, circa 1945
4 x 5 1/2 x 2 inches
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A12868
Provenance
Perls Galleries, New York
The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, acquired from the above, 1972
Christie's, New York, November 19, 2019, Lot 662
Private Collection, New York, acquired from the above, 2019
Literature
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, Work from 1925-1974, 1974, this Bracelet reproduced.
G. Di San Lazzaro, Homage to Alexander Calder, Paris, 1972, this Bracelet reproduced page 90.
Calder: In Time, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 1989, this Bracelet reproduced page 270.
The Intimate World of Alexander Calder, 1990, Harry N. Abrams Inc., this Bracelet reproduced page 270.
Calder Jewelry, 2007, Edited by Alexander S. C. Rower and Holton Rower, Yale University Press, a similar Bracelet reproduced in color, pages 7 and 261.
Exhibited
New York, Perls Galleries, Calder: Jewelry, November-December 1966.
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, Work from 1925-1974, October-December 1974
Additional Photos
On Model
On Model
Detail
Best known for creating kinetic sculpture, including mobiles and moving stabiles, Alexander Calder also created one-of-a-kind jewelry, often with the same materials used to create sculpture. Calder created his first pieces of jewelry for his sister's dolls when he was a child.
ALEXANDER CALDER JEWELRY
Best known for creating kinetic sculpture, including mobiles and moving stabiles, Alexander Calder also created one-of-a-kind jewelry, often with the same materials used to create sculpture. Calder created his first pieces of jewelry for his sister's dolls when he was a child.
In 1928, at the age of twenty-nine, Calder created some of his earliest jewelry, after which the activity burgeoned, continuing until the end of his life. For several decades Calder mostly made jewelry for his wife, Louisa and for gifts to friends and relatives. Every day Calder hammered and chiseled small metal objects, then assembled them to create three-dimensional entities, sometimes for a mobile, other times for a bracelet or a ring or a necklace, etc. His chief artistic concern, he explained, was "a plastic quality...the mass...sinuosity...contrast of lightness to mass...of black to white...of somberness to color...movement...suspension."
We are offering a circa 1945 unique bracelet Calder created that adapts the repetition of multiple bands of silver the Artist often used in many necklaces, rings and bracelets. This one-of-a-kind Bracelet is not only registered in the archives of the Alexander Calder Foundation under application number A12868, but also reproduced in full color on page 7 and again on page 261 in the authoritative Calder Jewelry, edited by SC Rower and included in Calder Jewelry, the 2007-2009 traveling exhibition seen by thousands at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan. The Bracelet is also reproduced in several catalogues, including the 1974 Calder Retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois.
According to Calder Jewelry, Yale University Press, 2007, Alexander Calder’s jewelry may most appropriately be defined as ornaments for the body. His brooches, tiaras and necklaces have more in common with the pectorals, diadems and neckpieces made by ancient cultures than jewelry in the traditional sense of Western European gem wear. Calder’s attraction to the graphic abstractions of pre-modern ornament are most evident in the jewelry he made, the majority of which dates to the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s.
Making jewelry was very personal for Calderand each piece exists as a unique work, said Alexander S.C. Rower, Calder's grandson and head of the Calder Foundation. According to S. C. Rower, Calder Jewelry, Yale University Press, 2007, page 7, Calder’s attraction to the graphic abstractions of pre-modern ornament are most evident in the jewelry he made, the majority created during the 30's to the 50's.
Calder compulsively hammered and chiseled small metal objects, then assembled his creations into three-dimensional entities, whether to create a standing mobile or a stabile, or jewelry including bracelets, necklaces, earrings, cuff-links, a brooch or a belt-buckle. Inspired by African designs, Navajo ornaments and Brazilian good luck charms, each piece of Calder jewelry was individually designed and hand-made by the artist.
Calder’s good friend, Surrealist painter Stanley William Hayter, recalled in the early days in Paris "everyone" wore Calder’s silver and brass wire jewelry. The same was true in bohemian circles of New York where such society women like Mary Rockefeller and Peggy Guggenheim adored wearing Calder's statement jewelry.
