Text by LAURA MALAGRINO and ANTONIA MOU Photos by ANTONIA MOU
ARTFULLY ABSTRACT
DE YOUNG EXHIBITS CALDER, PICASSO WORKS
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NTRICATE SHADOWS — an acrobat, a solar system, a side profile — cloak the walls, swaying with the sea of people moving from one nameplate to the next. Primary colors decorate canvas and sheet metal, striking eyes all the way across the pale white room. Memories live in wooden frames, immortalizing every interaction between two illustrious 20th century artists. As COVID-19 cases in California decline, museums across the Bay Area are slowly welcoming the public back into carefully curated art galleries and exhibitions. For the de Young Museum of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco located in Golden Gate Park, this means premiering exhibits that have been years in the making, including “Calder-Picasso,” “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving” and “Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI.” Among dozens of new galleries, “Calder-Picasso” is a standout collection. The featured works juxtapose two legendary artists of the 20th century — Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso. According to Palo Alto High School AP Art History teacher Sue La Fetra, Picasso’s work was described as deconstructionist — breaking down a scene to its fundamentals — while Calder’s work took a more constructionist angle. Despite their differences in style, the two artists often paralleled each other in subject matter.
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“The exhibition focuses on the two artists’ shared fascination with exploring and expanding the potential of some of the most fundamental components of art — the line, the volume, the void, and gravity,” coordinating curator of “Calder-Picasso” Timothy Anglin Burgard said.
terized by new ideas of the time, such as Sigmund Freud’s theory of the subconscious and Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Picasso began to abstract his work more and more in order to impact the subconscious mind of the viewer. “You have the abstraction of forms to the point where it doesn’t really represent anything but art,” La Fetra said. “It is art.”
Legacies left behind Decades after the distinctly unique artists took the world by storm, the influence An exemplary experience of Calder and Picasso can still be found in The de Young crafts an excellent expomuseums today. sition of the two artists’ work. Throughout Calder was an American sculptor the exhibit, we see both Calder and Picasso known for his innovative kinetic art and work through different mediums and styles, public sculptures. The most notable pieces moving from wire structures and sketches from his career include his bold, wind-pow- to abstract paintings and mobiles. On top ered constructions, of being a tactwhich came to be ful comparison known as “mobiles” Artists and their art also of the two artists, — the French word can transcend the time it is also a visual for motion. Calder history lesson. As filled spaces with and place of their creation Calder and Picasclear purpose and an and speak to the present so’s paths cross, we array of materials, see the reflection from sheet metal and — and to the future.” of shared ideas wire to wheels and through the art as — TIMOTHY ANGLIN BURGARD, curator the two employ string. “He really loved similar colors and making things and the idea of looking at shapes to communicate a specific emotion. abstracted forms, and how you can use lots Picasso’s paintings, while not as physof the negative space,” La Fetra said. ically dynamic as Calder’s pieces, are aniPicasso was an Spanish painter, sculp- mated through their strategic placement tor, ceramicist and co-founder of the Cub- alongside the mobiles. The overlapping eleism movement. Picasso’s work is charac- ments across two artworks meld the pieces
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