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Calder-Picasso
ARTFULLY ABSTRACT
DE YOUNG EXHIBITS CALDER, PICASSO WORKS
INTRICATE 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.
“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 Legacies left behind anything but art,” La Fetra said. “It is art.”
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, which came to be known as “mobiles” — the French word for motion. Calder filled spaces with “Artists and their art also can transcend the time and place of their creation of being a tactful comparison of the two artists, it is also a visual history lesson. As 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 string. — TIMOTHY ANGLIN BURGARD, curator the two employ
“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 ani-
Picasso 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
into one, giving Picasso’s paintings the liveliness and reality of a mobile while transforming the rigidity of Calder’s structures into something much more fluid.
The mobiles are purposefully hung and lit from angles that incorporate highlights and shadows into the artwork — pushing the viewer to examine art beyond the tangible object. The shadows create a sense of permanence and a connection to a multidimensional reality that would otherwise be unachievable in the canvas format.
Calder’s “Vertical Foliage” is especially impressive. The massive wire sculpture resembles leaves on a branch, with each wire extending outward to carry a painted piece of sheet metal.
The mobile seems to be an ode to nature, and the peace that can be found within. Each slight movement of the mobile creates a sense of anticipation that braces the viewer for something beyond the sculpture. The expectation of something dramatic, like a sudden loss of balance, leaves us with the stoic reality of the immovable piece.
In Picasso’s oil painting “Nu couche (Reclining Nude),” he depicts a lover through thick black outlines and dramatic strokes of color, echoing Calder’s imaginative wire sculptures that prompt viewers to interpret a subject for themselves. With fruits and leaves shaping the woman’s curves, the viewer takes on an earthly, celestial perspective.
In a period of incredible turmoil, the shared experiences of artists can shed light on the value of expression through time.
“Artists and their art also can transcend the time and place of their creation and speak to the present — and to the future,” Burgard wrote. “While it is true that visual vocabularies can go in and out of style, the fundamental components of art, including humanity, the human condition, and the desire to create and express something unique and meaningful, never lose their relevance.” v
TRIPLE GONG (LEFT) — American artist Al-
exander Calder’s 1948 “Triple Gong,” composed of brass, sheet metal, wire and paint, hangs from the ceiling of the de Young Museum. The bright colors and semi-triangular shapes reappear throughout both Calder and Pablo Picasso’s works.
IMPARTIAL FORMS (MIDDLE) — Through-
out his artistic career, Alexander Calder excelled in the creation of both sculptures and canvas art. Adjacent to his acclaimed mobiles, Alexander Calder uses similar colors and shapes in his 1946 oil painting “Impartial Forms.”
NU COUCHE (RIGHT) — A young woman,
