Figa Brooch
6 1/2 x 3 1/8 x 7/8 inchesFiga Brooch, circa 1948
6 1/2 x 3 1/8 x 7/8 inches
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A12870
Provenance
Perls Galleries, New York
The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, acquired from the above, 1968
Christie's, New York, November 19, 2019, Lot 661
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 Figa Brooch reproduced, n.p.
Calder Jewelry, 2007, Edited by Alexander S. C. Rower and Holton Rower, Yale University Press, similar Figa jewelry reproduced, pages 106-107 and 270.
Calder's Universe, Jean Lipman, The Whitney Museum, The Viking Press, New York, 1980, similar Figa jewelry reproduced, pages 210 and 213.
The Intimate World of Alexander Calder, Danial Marchesseau, Harru N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1989, similar Figa jewelry reproduced, pages 301 and 321
Exhibited
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, Work from 1925-1974, October-December 1974
Calder Foundation
A similar Figa Brooch in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and four similar Figa 1948 Silver jewelry works, including Figa Brooch, 2 Figa Hair Ornaments and a Figa Fork reproduced online at the Calder Foundation
Additional Photos
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Alexander Calder created unique pieces of jewelry, often with the same materials he used to create his mobiles and standing mobiles, mostly brass and steeland also silver, occasionally augmented with ceramic, wood and glass. Just like Calder's sculptures, each of which is unique, each piece of Calder jewelry is also a one-of-a-kind objects d'art individually created by Calder, often knowingly fanciful and deceptively whimsical in appearance.
ALEXANDER CALDER JEWELRY
Alexander Calder created jewelry with the same materials used to create sculptures, although Calder jewelry is generally, but not always smaller. Alexander Calder created unique pieces of jewelry, often with the same materials he used to create his mobiles and standing mobiles, mostly brass and steeland also silver, occasionally augmented with ceramic, wood and glass. Just like Calder's sculptures, each of which is unique, each piece of Calder jewelry is also a one-of-a-kind objects d'art individually created by Calder, often knowingly fanciful and deceptively whimsical in appearance.
Alexander Calder’s jewelry may most appropriately be defined as ornaments for the body. His brooches, tiaras, rings, bracelets 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.
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, 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.
From the Calder Foundation Chronology of Alexander Calder:
May 1949;
Upon returning home from Brazil, Calder crafts a large brooch for Henrique Mindlin’s wife, Helena. The brooch is in the form of a figa—a hand with the thumb curled under the forefinger—a symbol of luck in Brazil. Thank you, thank you, thank you ever so much for the most beautiful figa I have ever
seen. You managed to make many females terribly envious of meand this makes me oh! so happy! Calder eventually makes at least twenty pieces of jewelry in the figa motif, nearly all as gifts for family and friends.
As included in Calder: Sculptor of Air at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome and Calder: Discipline of the Dance at Museo Jumex, Mexico City
The Alexander Calder "Figa", 1948 sterling silver brooch available from Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd., is not only a piece of statement jewelry but also a sculpture of wearable art. This Figa, 1948 silver brooch can be displayed as jewelry on a dress or lapel, but also easily displayed in a frame, table or pedestal as sculpture. Standing 6 1/2 inches tall, this Alexander Calder Figa Brooch is larger in scale than many Alexander Calder standing mobiles which can be as small as one or two inches!
This Figa Brooch was exhibited in the 1974 Calder Retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; in addition this Figa Brooch is reproduced in the accompanying Catalogue, included in the exhibition check list among many Calders lent from the esteemed collection of Mr. and Mrs. James W. Alsdorf. Mr. Alsdorf was chairman of the board of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975 to 1978. Other examples of Alexander Calder Figa Brooches are reproduced pages 106-107, Calder Jewelry, 2007, Yale University Press; another Figa Brooch is in the Philadelphia Museum.
Mark Rosenthal observed in Calder Jewelry, Yale University Press, 2007: Calder was intrigued with the age-old form of the figa, a Brazilian good luck charm often shaped as a fist with the thumb placed between the index and middle finger. The ancient amulet came to the New World with the African slave trade and remains a symbol of good luck and fertility among Brazilians. When Alexander Calder and his wife Louisa arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1948, Lota de Macedo Soares, a good friend of the couple, encouraged Calder to create sculpture while in Rio. Calder visited a hardware storeand purchased a hammer, anvil, tinsnips, sheets of aluminum and steel wire. I hastily took a piece of aluminum sheet and fashioned a figa-the Brazilian good-luck piece...finally I put a wire pin on the figa and gave it to Lota, who often wears it as a barrette.
Calder first exhibited his jewelry in 1929 alongside his paintings and sculptures. Initially Calder sold his jewelry at particularly low prices so he could earn a living while establishing himself as a sculptor. Later Calder made jewelry for his wife and as gifts for friends, including the wives of artists Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Luis Buñuel and Marc Chagall. By the late 1930's, society women recognized Calder jewelry was "wearable sculpture" appealing to women with avant-garde tastes who liked to make a dramatic entrance, including Frances J. Whitney, Georgia O'Keefe, Mary Rockefeller, Peggy Guggenheim, Hope Mackler, Mary Rockefeller was said to have required a little elbow room when she wore her Calder necklace at art openings and in her autobiography, legendary art collector Peggy Guggenheim boasted I am the only woman in the world who wears his enormous mobile earrings.
The Calder Foundation estimates the Artist produced 1,800 pieces of jewelry during his lifetime. Unlike other 20th century artists who dabbled in making jewelry, including Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Georges Braque, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí, Calder refused to make multiples and only created limited editions of his lithographs, most sold by Maeght. In fact Calder insisted on maintaining complete control for each piece of jewelryand refused to authorize goldsmith use of his designs. Instead Calder hammered and twisted each piece of jewelry by hand, often creating his extraordinary creations from a single strand of silver or brass wire; instead of using solder to make a joint, Calder used rivets to create connections or inventively wrapped wire.
Calder once said: I don’t want to ever compete head-on with a jeweler who’s makes things out of precious materials because it’s a very different thing. They are doing that to enhance the beauty of the wearer to make the stone look fabulous; this is about a statement, they’re really little sculptures…[that] make people think about jewelry in a different way.
