Beschreibung:

Alexander Calder The Lion (maquette) 1976 sheet metal, stabile 66 x 44.5 x 63.5 cm. (25 7/8 x 17 1/2 x 25 in.)
Provenance Estate of the artist until c. 1977 Andre Emmerich Collection Christie's New York, 'Post-War and Contemporary Art Morning Session', 17 May 2007, lot 180 Acquired from the above sale by the present owner Exhibited New York, Ameringer Yohe Fine Art, Calder: Four Maquettes, Two Stabiles & A Little Bird Too, 19 September - 12 October 2002 Literature Calder: Four Maquettes, Two Stabiles & A Little Bird Too, Exh. Cat., Ameringer Yohe Fine Art, New York, 2002, pp. 19-21 (illustrated in colour) Catalogue Essay “When I have used spheres and discs, I have intended that they should represent more than what they just are.” ALEXANDER CALDER The Lion (maquette) executed in 1976 by Alexander Calder excellently attests to the artist’s reputation as the world’s utmost abstract sculptor that has given him unique prestige in Twentieth Century Art. Rather than focusing on two-dimensional renderings of his subjects, Calder chooses to inundate himself with the nature of structure, integrating colour and movement to such an extent that his sculptures challenge the conventional label of three-dimensional art. The present lot moves gracefully in an everlasting balance of predestined elegance and poise, reaffirming the artist’s renowned technique. Calder’s maquettes are a stroke of genius, continuing to fascinate the audience with their incredulous achievements of engineering, culminating in an abstract beauty and dynamism.The Lion (maquette) is a product of Calder’s of the final year of his career before his death a year later in 1976, exhibiting not only his enchantment with majestic conceptions, but also the performative allure and charming stasis that grant his maquettes a coveted place in art history. While Calder can be considered one of the most prominent artists of his time, his artwork is contemporaneous with barely accessible artists, including the Surrealists and the titans of unadulterated abstraction, such as Robert Delaunay Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters all of which made up the Abstract-Création group. Calder has been recognized as one of the prominent forerunners of modernist sculpture; however, his involvement in the development of abstract modern sculpture is incredibly palpable. The artist was considered a member of the European avant-garde, brushing shoulders with André Breton Marcel Duchamp Joan Miró and Piet Mondrian His radical inventions oscillate easily between seeming opposites, adding to the constant, anarchic subversion of the sculptural paradigm. In 1960, the artist declared the importance of his monumental stabiles: “There has been an aggrandisement in my work. It’s true that I’ve more or less retired from the mobiles. I regard them as just fiddling. The engineering on the big objects is important” (A. Calder, quoted in M. Prather, Alexander Calder 1898-1976, exh. cat., Washington, D.C., 1998, p. 279). Using smaller sculptures as guides, such as the present lot, he was able to fluently complete his elevated, steel monuments; thus, while at a height of 17.5 inches, the maquette will forever insinuate its conversion to an immense scale. Calder develops the structure’s formal dualism by manifesting delicate forms with hard, industrial sheet metal. Though Calder predominantly rendered his maquettes in aluminium, here he chooses to use steel to create a durable, long-term structure: “Calder’s characteristic material is metal…He has always avoided modeling in favor of direct handling - cutting, shaping with a hammer, or assembling piece by piece. Such an approach has fostered a simplicity of form and clarity of contour in his work. It allies him with Brancusi, Arp, Moore and Giacometti in their repudiation of virtuosity” (J.J. Sweeney, Alexander Calder exh. cat., New York 1951, reproduced in C. Giménez & A.S.C. Rower (eds.), Calder: Gravity and Grace, London, 2004, p. 72). The significance of Calder’s art was not only in its nature of movement, but also in its complete absence of pretension. Crafting the