Memories - Calder

Alexander Calder operating Le Cirque during the Calder retrospective at the Maeght Foundation in 1969.

Alexander Calder in Saché in front of his mobile stables and the BMW that he painted for the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1975, with Hervé Poulain at the wheel, (here on the left) a great art lover, but also a gentleman driver.

Here's what Jean Todt says about it: "One of my auctioneer friends, Hervé Poulain, specialized in the sale of contemporary paintings, told me about the possibility of seeing Alexandre Calder paint a car to participate in the 24 hours of Le Mans. I found the idea fantastic. The problem was that he couldn't find a manufacturer who was sympathetic to this idea. And that's when I tried to convince a manufacturer. At the time I was a rally teammate - and I had convinced BMW to accept this challenge. BMW had loaned a car, a BM30CSL, which was painted by Calder. This car is now in the BMW museum in Munich, and every year this idea has been renewed, and there have been great painters like Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, César who for years painted a car which participated in the 24 hours of Le Mans, and today it is part of BMW's heritage."

Alexander Calder painting the portrait of James Johnson Sweeney in his studio La Gouacherie, Saché. James Johnson Sweeney is the man who made the heyday of modern art in New York, directing the MoMA from 1935 to 1946, then the Guggenheim from 1950 to 1962, organizing exhibitions which still remain as references in the the history of art.

Today, his grandson, Manus, has opened a gallery in Bordeaux. We worked together for many years, it was always a pleasure as he is charming, cultured and often very, very funny!

Alexander Calder and Joan Miro in the Miró Labyrinth, with L'Oiseau Lunanaire, Fondation Maeght, in Saint Paul-de-Vence.

Alexander Calder and Joan Miró at the opening of the Calder retrospective at the Maeght Foundation, 1969.

Fernand Léger, in front of his wire portrait created by Calder.

The mustachioed portrait, strikingly resembling, is astonishing by the contrast between the work, so thin, so transparent, so mobile, and the hundred-kilo man:
“It’s something like a tree trunk in motion […] Its place is rather outside in the wind, in the sun. »

In fact, rarely has a work corresponded so much to its author. Its mobiles and stabiles are so many winks, giggles and joviality, just like the character of the American giant. The man also knows how to commit to great causes and to speak out, in the United States, against the Vietnam War.

View of the Calder 1954 exhibition.

Aimé, convinced by his work, puts all his resources at the artist's disposal. “I had an exhibition of ten large stabiles at Maeght in February 1959. Madame Maeght, who was very enthusiastic about these objects, was quite surprised and she said to me: “Did you have to rack your brains to find this? ” Maeght must have agreed with Guiguitte because he bought the entire exhibition from me, in bulk, and in cash, before the opening; It was the first time a merchant had treated me like this. »

View of the Stabiles exhibition by Alexander Calder at the Maeght gallery, 1959.

Calder designed another immense stabile, Les Renforts, for the Foundation gardens. His first retrospective took place there in 1969, he enjoyed creating everything around it, including elements from the catalogue, an experience which made him say: "I did a big retrospective at the Maeght Foundation, it was very nice to collaborate with Aimé and Sert. I considered this exhibition almost as the end of ends. »