Alexander Calder
Bird, 1955
Tin cans and wire
27.3 by 38.1 by 12.7 cm (10¾ by 15 by 5 in.)
69587
© 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Executed in 1955. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, under application number A13175. Alexander Calder is internationally known for his mobiles and monumental...
Executed in 1955. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder
Foundation, New York, under application number A13175.
Alexander Calder is internationally known for his mobiles and monumental commissions, which have become some of the most iconic artworks of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, as he was working on his monumental works, Calder simultaneously returned to his practice of creating birds from tin cans and wire, akin to the works from his Cirque Calder, 1926–31. Similarly to his mobiles, these birds were constructed to be hung from the ceiling, interacting with the movement of the air. Influenced by the Dadaists, Calder created Bird out of found materials from his studio — here, a tin can. The construction of the work is directly inspired by a scene Calder witnessed in Paris while strolling along the Seine: he saw “birds with long slender tails and a red disk about two inches in diameter on the end” [1].
Foundation, New York, under application number A13175.
Alexander Calder is internationally known for his mobiles and monumental commissions, which have become some of the most iconic artworks of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, as he was working on his monumental works, Calder simultaneously returned to his practice of creating birds from tin cans and wire, akin to the works from his Cirque Calder, 1926–31. Similarly to his mobiles, these birds were constructed to be hung from the ceiling, interacting with the movement of the air. Influenced by the Dadaists, Calder created Bird out of found materials from his studio — here, a tin can. The construction of the work is directly inspired by a scene Calder witnessed in Paris while strolling along the Seine: he saw “birds with long slender tails and a red disk about two inches in diameter on the end” [1].
Created with the same skill, craft, and detail of his larger mobiles, Bird condenses the artist’s tenets into a more accessible and familiar composition. After gaining notoriety from his 1946 exhibition at Galerie Louis Carré in Paris and Jean-Paul Sartre’s subsequent seminal essay, Calder went on to represent the United States at the 1952 Venice Biennale. With this fame came various public commissions, including Spirale for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 1958. Juxtaposed to his public monumental works, Bird brings Calder’s mastery to a domestic scale.
[1] ‘Only, Only Bird,’ The Phillips Collection, n.d., https://www.phillipscollection.org/collection/only-only-bird