Untitled (Juggler with Dog), 1931/1964, From Calder’s Circus, unbound portfolio of sixteen offset lithographs (New York: Art in America and Perls Galleries, 1964), Alexander Calder, 1898-1976, offset lithograph on toned rag paper, 12 3/8 × 16 7/8 in. sheet, Promised gift of Jon and Mary Shirley, © 2023 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo: Nicholas Shirley, Brightwood Photos
AUDIO GUIDE TRANSCRIPT
NARRATOR:
These offset lithographs date from 1964; but they’re based on drawings that Calder made as a young man.
During the 1920s, Calder took a job illustrating for the National Police Gazette. They sent him to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to sketch circus scenes.
The circus became a lifelong interest for Calder.
José Diaz.
JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ:
During Calder's youth, the circus was a great point of inspiration for him. This was a highly sophisticated form of entertainment. It had a global appeal. It included performative aspects - larger than life theatricality. It included actors, performers, animals. And he illustrated this. He even went on to make his Cirque Calder, which was his own representation of a performative, sculptural circus that he himself was sort of the ringmaster of.
NARRATOR:
The Cirque Calder dates from after Calder’s move to Paris in 1926. It was a complex and unique body of art, and included tiny performers, animals and props such as he’d observed on his sketching trips to the circus.
JOSÉ CARLOS DIAZ.
The Cirque Calder was a reenacted performative circus made of small figurines and design sets that mimic the circus. The Cirque Calder was something that was small enough to fit in one suitcase and eventually five, and Calder would perform the Cirque Calder across the Atlantic from Paris to New York.