1.5.07

Cirque de Calder

Those of you who know me well, know my love for the circus and puppets. If I hadn't decided to pursue a career as a writer, I'm sure I would have one day become a circus clown - I swear, I had and ran a flea circus when I was a kid. My mom can vouch for me on that one. :)

Alexander Calder's "The Circus," is an intricately assembled performance piece played out by handmade characters including jugglers, sword swallowers, clowns, and animals.

The figures are crafted out of "cork, wire, wood, yarn, paper, string, and cloth," and are each assigned a series of movements and manipulated by Calder to perform specific circus acts.

Jean Paul Sarte, Jean Cocteau, Joan MirĂ³, and many other avante-garde artists were great admirers of Calder's work.

"The Circus" is now housed at the Whitney Museum in New York.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

FleaCircusDirector said...

Calder's installation art circus is indeed worth looking at. There was also Cardoso's Flea Circus which is in storage at the Tate Modern so unfortunately not viewable.

Greg Santos said...

Thanks, I'm glad you recommend seeing it. The next time I have some free time in New York, I'll have to go visit the Whitney.