{"id":62951,"date":"2026-08-08T20:56:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/62951\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:56:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:56:43","slug":"before-calders-mobiles-this-circus-brought-his-wire-figures-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/62951\/","title":{"rendered":"before calder’s mobiles, this circus brought his wire figures to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calder\u2019s Circus Back in Paris, France<\/p>\n

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One hundred years ago, in 1926, American artist Alexander Calder<\/a> arrived in Paris. On the occasion of Calder. R\u00eaver en \u00e9quilibre, at Fondation Louis Vuitton<\/a> in Paris, his foundational project, Cirque Calder (Calder\u2019s Circus), makes a grand return to the European city that defined his career. Teetering, tottering, and fashioned from wire, Calder built this pint-sized circus<\/a> in the Roaring Twenties. Crouched around the set, about the size of a child\u2019s playset, he would perform the circus for Paris\u2019s avant-garde art <\/a>scene. This first work set the stage for Calder\u2019s iconic mobiles, pieces defined by movement, balance, and a playful disposition toward the world around us.<\/p>\n

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\u2018In 1946, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a beautiful essay about Calder\u2019s Mobiles,\u2019 remarks Fondation Louis Vuitton curator Oliver Michelon, who worked on the show. \u2018He says that Calder\u2019s works are something like \u201clittle local fiestas,\u201d une petite f\u00eate locale in French. So there\u2019s this idea of playfulness and joy in Calder\u2019s work later on that is already present in the circus.\u2019<\/p>\n

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installation view of the exhibition Calder. R\u00eaver en \u00e9quilibre, presented fom april 15 to august 16, 2026 at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris | image \u00a9 2026 Calder Foundation, New York \/ ADAGP, Paris \u00a9 Fondation Louis Vuitton \/ David Bordes<\/p>\n

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Curator Oliver Michelon on the Circus in a Calder Retrospective<\/p>\n

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The project is an exceptional loan to the Paris foundation<\/a> from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Just months before the opening of R\u00eaver en \u00e9quilibre, the New York museum had wrapped its exhibition, High Wire: Calder\u2019s Circus at 100, which staged the spectacle in all its miniature wonder. \u2018There couldn\u2019t be a Calder retrospective without having the circus, as this is also the 100th anniversary of Calder coming to Paris,\u2019 Michelon tells designboom. \u2018He showed this as one of his first works in Paris, from 1926 to 1933\u2026 It was essential because the circus is the starting point for Calder\u2019s stay in Paris.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Calder performing his circus, shared on the event of the exhibition High Wire: Calder\u2019s Circus at 100, at the Whitney Museum of American Art<\/p>\n

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How the Circus Set Things in Motion<\/p>\n

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When many think of Calder\u2019s work, his hallmark mobiles come to mind: masterfully balanced arrangements of colorful shapes fluttering ever so gently from a single point. What preceded these moving marvels was a study in motion that began with a journalistic assignment to illustrate the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus around 1925. Fascinated by the performers, Calder created his own troupe. \u2018The circus is a kinetic work\u2014that\u2019s the first point.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Olivier is keen to point out the bridge between this work and Calder\u2019s more well-known oeuvre. \u2018It is nothing but movement. Horses are running, acrobats are jumping, objects are thrown into space, a balloon is exploding. Movement is everywhere. In 1926, just before coming to Paris, Calder had published a book, Animal Sketching, as a method book for drawing animals. There, he stated that to draw animals you have to understand that they are movement; animal equals movement. The circus is the same: circus equals movement\u2026 In [Calder. R\u00eaver en \u00e9quilibre], a bit after the circus, we have a later work called Small Sphere (1932) and Heavy Sphere (1933), which is the first suspended mobile by Calder. It can be seen as a continuation of the circus as well, because it\u2019s kind of like an act.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Garland Entry, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1930 | image from Library Of Congress Prints And Photographs Division<\/a><\/p>\n

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Paris in the Roaring Twenties Sets the Stage<\/p>\n

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The circus sits between many different categories: is it art? A toy? A performance? Olivier was quick to remind us that, \u2018The circus was something that defied category\u2026.. Today we are looking back with our historical categories, but in the Roaring Twenties everything was mixed. So today we can call the circus a performance, that\u2019s convenient but that category didn\u2019t exist then.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Olivier sets the stage in the Roaring Twenties, or Les Ann\u00e9es folles in France. \u2018But you have to think that [the circus is set in] the same context in which a modernist architect like Le Corbusier was fascinated, mesmerized by Josephine Baker and her almost electric dance. You have to think that Mondrian was a jazz addict, and he was well known for dancing like mad. And that same Mondrian invited Calder to his studio after seeing the circus. So everything was a bit mixed in ways that today we are only beginning to appreciate.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Sacha Stone, Calder and the Cirque Calder (1926-1931), 1929, Gelatin silver print, 27.9 x 35.6 cm, Calder Foundation, New York | \u00a0\u00a9 2026 Calder Foundation, New York \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York \u00a9 Sacha Stone<\/p>\n

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Bringing Motion to Delicate Objects<\/p>\n

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Conservators at the Whitney have commented on the challenges of displaying such delicate objects. As captured in films taken during Calder\u2019s lifetime, the figurines were built to be handled. Speaking to overcoming this difficulty, Olivier remarks, \u2018with Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauder, guest curators of the exhibition and Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Bodin, our architect, we decided to isolate it act by act, sequence by sequence. I believe that helps to convey its vitality.\u2019 Accompanied by a film made by Carlos Vilardeb\u00f3 in 1961 of Calder later in his life, the display of the original objects is given a certain vitality all these years later.<\/p>\n

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\u2018There are circular display cases that, of course, are reminiscent of the circus ring. We play records that Calder played during the circus performance\u2026 there\u2019s low light, so the circus gradually appears as you enter the room. There is time to discover it and be surprised. As you approach it, you also hear the music more because it\u2019s coming from the display case\u2026. Even if they are not moving, there is a lot of humor in every material. You have bouchons de li\u00e8ge (cork stoppers), you have very tiny things. You see the fun in making it as well.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calder\u2019s Circus Back in Paris, France \u00a0 One hundred years ago, in 1926, American artist Alexander Calder arrived…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5826,5828,30,14120,39102],"class_list":["post-62951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-alexander-calder","tag-fondation-louis-vuitton","tag-paris","tag-play","tag-toys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}