Alexander Calder and Joan Miró “Calder/Miró”

Franklin Bowles Galleries -New York

poster for Alexander Calder and Joan Miró “Calder/Miró”

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At their first meeting in December 1928 Miró showed Calder a large Spanish Dancer collage at his Montmartre studio and Calder invited Miró to a performance of the Cirque Calder. Immediately responding to each other’s sensibilities, they struck up a friendship that lasted their entire lives. They championed each other’s art, exchanged many works over the years, and celebrated birthdays as well as exhibition openings together. Visits between the families were happy occasions, as Calder and Miró could always be counted on to trade jokes and stories. The vigorous personalities of the two were compelling—finding oneself in their midst the intensity was undeniable. Their bonhomie survives even today as the succeeding generations of their families, despite living on separate continents, have continued to work closely together and to support each other’s diverse projects. Their reunions, like Calder’s and Miró’s, are eagerly anticipated and not entirely antic-free.

~Statement written by the grandchildren of Alexander Calder and Joan Miró for the Phillips Collection exhibition, Calder/ Miró, in 2004.

Biomorphic forms, floating art and the joy of discovering in nature the materials to see the world with the eyes of a child; these are just a few of the contributions that Alexander Calder and Joan Miró made to the fabric of modern art. Even today, their art seems fresh and unsullied. It speaks with a clean voice of happiness and freedom and the existential mark-making that claims territory for the liberated and liberating. These two individuals, Calder and Miró, never gave up their struggle to free art and challenge the viewer to new visual games. From found fragments in nature, Miró created the playful personages that would go on to inspire artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Haruki Murakami. Calder’s mobiles, the toy animals in his circus and his wire portraits—often crafted at parties—remain among the most joyous artworks of the 20th century.

Please join Franklin Bowles Gallery to celebrate a unique friendship through the art of two geniuses of 20th century international Modernism. The gallery owner Franklin Bowles had the privileged of meeting both artists, so an opportunity to showcase their work together is indeed a labor of love and personal delight.

Come share that energy with us this summer in New York as we present Miró /Calder.

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from July 14, 2014 to July 31, 2014

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