The twentieth century was in many ways the dawn of communication throughout the world. Communication need not take place merely through the spoken or written word; the mere enabling of physical proximity by the progressive transportation advances of those times allowed those who just a century earlier may never have met in person to see one another face-to-face. World travel was finally possible to an ever-increasing percentage of the global population. What this heralded was an exchange of ideas that had never before existed on such a scale.

It was through this development that the Modernist movement was founded and flourished—an influx of influences from throughout the world fed the imaginations of a new generation. It was in this atmosphere that the great American creator Alexander Calder found his artistic birth. The Modernist era was perhaps the first major epoch where humanity, at least the Western portion of it, saw a distinct difference between the past and the present, a break in traditional continuity. It was a repudiation of the old, but also trepidation of what was to come. The modern age had arrived, and it was new, wondrous, frightening, a change that heralded a new beginning. Perhaps the foremost American craftsman of the Modernist period, Calder produced both sculptural work as well as jewelry with an insatiable passion.

Born in 1898 to a succession of both sculptors and Alexanders, Calder was to start his interest in the crafts world at an early age. His first recollection of using his hands was the construction of little wire and wood figures at the age of five. At age eight, he was producing jewelry for his sister’s doll. Despite this initial propensity, Calder went into the engineering field as his vocation. Finding the work unfulfilling, he re-invented himself as an artist, entering the Art Students League in New York City as a painting student in 1923.

A gradual procession of events would lead Calder onto other paths, although he never abandoned his interest in painting and portraiture. Throughout these transformative steps, there was one continuous thread, one instrumental icon, which would eventually transform him, and which so typified Alexander Calder. In his work as an illustrator for the tabloid National Police Gazette, he would be introduced to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. This formed a lasting impression on the artist. “It wasn’t the daringness of the performers,” Calder stated, “nor the tricks or gimmicks; it was the fantastic balance in motion that the performers exhibited.”1

The circus would end up being a defining characteristic of Calder’s work. A trip to Paris brought him into contact with a Serbian toymaker, who encouraged Calder into toy production. This was to be an ephemeral encounter, as Calder was never able to find the toymaker again. It would prove to be a seminal event; because of this meeting, Calder would create his Cirque Calder, an entire miniaturized mechanical performance, first unveiled in Paris in 1926, as well as his first kinetic objects, a series of toys with whirling gizmos and doodads. Eventually, clearly inspired by that “fantastic balance in motion,” Alexander Calder would produce the mobile.

Calder’s jewelry has an innocent nature, a playfulness which does not take much seriously, least of all itself. In his pieces we can find spontaneity, whimsy and boldness. For artisans, so often there is some necessity for practicality; a requirement of restriction and restraint, for in order to make a living, an artisan must have his or her customers. So often, this requires one to produce that which will sell. Calder was notable for his independence to this penchant; perhaps his accrued fame, or maybe just force of will, put him in a position of power, rather than his clients. Or more probably what he produced was so unique, so desired at the time, that those who pursued his work cared not if the creator took grand liberties. Nevertheless, Calder acted as an elephantine imperator, producing pieces that completely defied the requested specifications of the commissioner. A sculpture made for Princeton University, originally stipulated to be in the school’s colors of orange and black, was repainted in solid black after Calder viewed the piece in situ. Another designated by the building’s owner to occupy only a small corner snaked its way across half the building.

One of the essential aspects of Calder’s work is its hand-hewn quality. Unlike the elegant and refined work of the Art Nouveau period, or much of contemporary jewelry, one can clearly witness the indentations of the hammer upon metal, the plier’s grip. The range of forms he was able to create with such basic techniques speaks to a true mastery of the medium. Calder obviously ascribed to a primordial effervescence, noting, “Simplicity of equipment and an adventurous spirit in attacking the unfamiliar or unknown are apt to result in a primitive and vigorous art. Somehow the primitive is usually much stronger than art in which technique and flourish abound.”2 There is a cyclistic nature to the development of art, most obviously observed in the rapidly evolving culture of the western, Eurocentric world. The rotation of action and reaction, of the adoption of new ideas and their rejection, chronicles the progression of art’s history. With Calder, we can see this reaction against the technical specificity of previous eras of jewelry-crafting, of the meticulous construction and thematic constraints. Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Victorian jewelry, while all of these had freedom of expression in their own right, none matched the sheer child-like exploration inherent to Calder’s jewelry, and found similarly in subsequent Modernist jewelers (like Harry Bertoia, Elsa Freund, Art Smith, and Margaret De Patta). And child-like may be the best descriptor; in viewing his jewelry, his paintings, his mobiles, one sees themes reminiscent of one’s scribbled sketches of bugs or animals from youth. Dr. Julia Marciari-Alexander, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs for the San Diego Museum of Art, remarked on Calder’s use of letters/words as the accentuating capstone of many pieces. Instead of precious gems, Calder bent wire into an alphabet soup, which catches the attention of the eye just as profoundly as a diamond or ruby.

This use of metal rather than gem also demonstrates Calder’s interest in using nontraditional materials for jewelrymaking; quite possibly a reaction against the high-cost components of previous eras, with an intention towards making personal adornment more viable to the public at large. Largely eschewing gold, Calder used brass and silver for his many creations, as well as broken pottery. Remarking on his perspective on using precious materials, Calder wrote, “That never appealed to me. A wood sphere painted vermillion is much better than a gold one.”3 It is noteworthy that even though most of his pieces utilize only one material, there is a distinct lack of monotony. Calder created moving parts, outlandish shapes and elementary configurations to achieve a unique character equal, if not superior, to those who would use faceted gems, varieties of semiprecious jewels or combinations of gold and silver. For Calder, form and shape were the most important aspects of his work. Often, the form and shape would become so voluminous that the jewelry became difficult to wear.

It has been said that fertility arises from messiness, a willingness to ignore the fear of failure and to accept anything as a triumph rather than a mistake. Calder might very well be the embodiment of this observation, as his work extended to a prodigious prolificness. In jewelry alone he produced over eighteen hundred works, and in his cherished mobiles, Calder reported that he made several thousand.4 Calder rarely if ever created pieces as a production line, refusing in several cases to replicate a popular design, even though it was in large demand by a consuming public. Thus the volume of his work is that much more astounding, as it is entirely derived from a relentless imagination. Despite the vast volume of jewelry he produced, Calder never proved to be derivative, and kept an aesthetic sensibility to his work that persisted through his constant experimentation.

Many specimens were created for friends and family. Louisa James Calder, his wife and scion of author Henry James and philosopher William James, was the primary recipient of this largess; each new year and birthday produced a new piece. The importance of these productions, for both wife and artist, is demonstrated in the little altar set up by Louisa in the Calder home, which displayed both the jewelry made for her by her husband, as well as an ode to Calder’s studio written by André Masson. It should be noted that for his wife, some insistence for decorum and tradition remained; Calder initially produced a gold wedding ring for Louisa—despite her delight, she stated it was merely an “engagement ring”, and subsequently a wedding ring was purchased from Waltham for two dollars.

“The underlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe, or part thereof. For that is a rather large model to work from.”   Alexander Calder

In discussing the artist, it is important to chronicle the relationships and friendships he forged, which seemed to have provided a reverberative feedback which nourished both Calder and his friends. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was an avid fan of Calder’s work, and his descriptions and interpretations would in turn inspire the artist himself, allowing him to observe his own creations from a new perspective. Peggy Guggenheim, that bombastious patron of the arts, received many gifts and ordered several commissions from the abundantly fruitful worker.

There are more than a few hints of influence from around the globe in Calder’s work, and some of his jewelry seems to be almost directly reinterpreted from ethnic and ancient themes. These are not shallow facsimiles, but original variations and combinations, taking essential thematic elements such as spirals, which are present in a vast array of world cultures, and implementing them and re-implementing them in different manifestations and variations. Calder’s animal brooches evoke haunting similarities to precolombian and African designs, but as if from a parallel evolution arriving at the same result, rather than a replica. A thunderbird and owl brooch seems like something excavated from an eccentric Aztec tomb rather than a piece of twentieth-century jewelry.
 
It is these pieces, which are so evocative of ethnic creations around the globe, which makes one wonder if Calder was rediscovering, artistically, a cultural blueprint, an evolution in both form and thought, which others a world away had pioneered millennia before. Calder himself primarily traveled to European countries, spending most of his time in Paris, so his direct exposure to other ethnicities would have been minimal. Of course, being a center of the arts, Paris held a treasure trove of ethnographic work.

What ultimately makes Calder a treasure in his own right is his demonstration of spontaneity, a lack of fear for beginning all over again. Rather, he was the artistic equivalent of an anthropological explorer, ceaselessly delving into new pursuits and new interests in unfamiliar territory, and successfully maintaining his endeavors in so many fields of art. His jewelry, only one facet of his entire facade, is as much an example of this spirit as his mobiles and sculptures. It is good to remember that sometimes, one needs to take one’s self less seriously, and let fly off of that trapeze.

NOTES
1. Prather, Marla. Alexander Calder: 1898 - 1976. National Gallery of Art, 1998, p. 17.
2. Rower, Alexander S.C. Calder Jewelry. Yale University Press, 2007, p. 145.
3. –––. Calder Jewelry. Yale University Press, 2007, p. 193.
4, 5. Lipman, Jean. Calder’s Universe. The Viking Press, 1976, p. 262.

SUGGESTED READING
Marchesseau, Daniel. The Intimate World of Alexander Calder. New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989.
Lipman, Jean. Calder’s Universe. New York: The Viking Press, 1976.
Rower, Alexander S.C. Calder Jewelry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Prather, Marla. Alexander Calder: 1898-1976. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1998.