Set both at 1½  col

Calder 1930.jpg

Alexander Calder, necklace, 1930, brass wire, ceramic and string. Loop: 15¾ inches; element: 25/8 by 13/8  inches. Calder Foundation, New York. —Maria Robledo photo ©2007 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist’s Rights Society

Calder 1940

Alexander Calder, necklace, circa 1940. Brass wire, 81/8 by 6¾ by 4½ inches. Inscription: “CS,” private collection, New York. —Maria Robledo photo ©2007 Calder Foundation, New York/Artist’s Rights Society

Photos on CD originally, e-m’d downstairs 7-16

for 7/25

‘CALDER JEWELRY’ SHOW DAZZLES AT PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM, 2 CUTS

AVV/GS SET 7/1 6 #746006

PHILADELPHIA, PENN. — Beginning as a child with embellishments to the costumes of his sister’s dolls, the American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898–1976) created more than 1,800 pieces of jewelry.

On view through November 2, the Philadelphia Museum of Art presents “Calder Jewelry,” the first museum exhibition to examine the jewelry on its own and in depth as sculpture on a smaller scale. The exhibition, in the Perelman Building, consists of some 100 necklaces, bracelets, pins, earrings and tiaras.

Best known for his invention of the mobile, Calder also produced these precious ornaments throughout his lifetime — for his wife, family, artists, friends — and as a more intimate dimension of his monumental art. The personal nature of his jewelry, and the inspiration it drew from sources ranging from the primitive to the modern, provide insight into Calder’s life and art.

 “Here in Philadelphia we are fortunate to have Alexander Calder’s work in the museum’s collection as well as on outdoor view along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where a rotating installation of his stabiles, made possible by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Calder Foundation, has just welcomed two striking new and colorful additions,” said Elisabeth Agro, the Nancy M. McNeil associate curator of Modern and Contemporary crafts and decorative arts.

The metalwork from numerous ancient cultures significantly influenced Alexander Calder. He was attracted to the directness of ancient processes and loved the simplicity of their forms.

“When a mobile by Alexander Calder is seen packed in a crate, it is a flat, lifeless object,” notes exhibition curator Mark Rosenthal in the catalog that accompanies the exhibition. “Picked up by its highest element, all of the components take their assigned positions, and the mobile will become animated, three-dimensional and imbued with motion. A necklace by Calder lives in the same way — inside and outside a crate. The only real difference between the two is that the structure of the mobile, with its rigid metal spokes, creates the breadth of the work of art, whereas the necklace usually depends on the body of the wearer to expand from a static state to fullness. Both works are of a piece and cut from the same cloth of activity.”

“Making jewelry was very personal for him, and each piece exists as a unique work,” adds Calder Foundation chairman and director Alexander S.C. Rower, the artist’s grandson. “Some of his gifts for his crowd (of friends) are included here: a brass wire ring enclosing a tri-colored fragment of porcelain for Joan Miro, a gold “P” initial brooch for his wife Pilar and a silver brooch of her name for their daughter Dolores; for Jeanne and Luis Bunuel, a gigantic flower brooch (with shards of colored glass and mirror for petals).”

For Calder’s jewelry, the wearer becomes significant both as context and structural support, and the exhibition will be punctuated by enlarged images of people wearing the jewelry, including Calder’s wife Louisa James. Other well-known women adorned by Calder, including Georgia O’Keeffe and Peggy Guggenheim, also suggest the jewelry’s popularity over the years.

This exhibition is co-organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Fla., and the Calder Foundation, New York.

“Calder Jewelry” is a collaboration between Rower and Mark Rosenthal, adjunct curator of Contemporary art to the Norton Museum of Art. In Philadelphia, the exhibition is coordinated by Elisabeth Agro, the Nancy M. McNeil associate curator of American Modern and Contemporary crafts and decorative arts.

Following its showing in Philadelphia, “Calder Jewelry” will travel to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (December 8–March 1) and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (March 31–June 22).

 “Calder Jewelry” is accompanied by a companion book published by the Calder Foundation.  The Philadelphia Museum of Art is on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 6th Street. For information, 215-763-8100 or www.philamuseum.org.