WHIRLYGIGS: Calder's "Hypermobility" at Whitney in NYC closes on Monday, Oct. 23

"Rare and slightly wobbly motorized works form an exhibition at the 

Whitney Museum of American Art that recaptures 

Calder’s guile and joy."

                                                                                              ... NY Times review

 

Above: Hanging Spider

There are still three more days to see the whimsical mobiles of Alexander Calder, whirling to specially composed music, on the top floor of the Whitney Museum in NYC. This exhibition focuses on the striking richness of movement and sound in Calder's work. It brings together a wide-ranging sampling of key sculptures, and provides a rare opportunity to experience the works as the artist intended—in motion.

"Capturing motion in art was a Modernist obsession. Yet by treating dynamics itself as a means of expression, whether with a motor or by suspending elements in space, Calder negated the possibility of perceiving these sculptures in a single fashion. Where sculpture had once aspired to monumentality, 

Calder proposed an art in three dimensions that took infinite forms."  

...New York Times

Aluminum Leaves, Red Post, Calder, 1941

A selection of mobiles is activated regularly for visitors. There will also
be one-time displays of rarely seen works, as well as motorized sculptures 
that haven’t been viewed in motion for decades. 

Sea Scape,1947

This mobile reminds me of glass artist Dale Chihuly's 
Persian Ceiling at the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, FL.
See "Jewel Boxes" feature here

untitled, Calder, 1947


See a bit of the exhibition, with motion and music, here.
The song "Turn, Turn, Turn" was written by Pete Seeger. 

~ oOo ~