Circus- Theme

Alexander Calder• American sculptor (b. July 22, 1898, Lawnton, Pa., U.S.—d. Nov. 11, 1976,

New York, N.Y.), best known as the inventor of the mobile and its static abstract counterpart, the stabile

• Mobile-a type of kinetic sculpture the delicately balanced or suspended components of which move in response to motor power or air currents

• stabiles- stationary sculptures.

Interesting point-he graduated in 1919 with a degree in mechanical engineering. For a time he traveled widely and held various engineering jobs. In 1922 he tookdrawing lessons at a night school in New

York City

• He also produced numerous wire figures, notably for a vast miniature

circus.

• Calder decided in 1926 to go to Paris, the world centre for modern art. While working on sculpture there, he began for his own amusement to make toylike animals of wood and wire. Out of these he developed a miniature circus, performances of which were attended by many of the leading artists and literary figures in Paris. The little circus figures, as well as his interest in continuous line drawings, led Calder to the creation of wire sculptures

http://www.whitney.org/Collection/AlexanderCalder/8336195

He also added considerably to the troupe over a period of 6 years, finally stopping in 1931. At its height, the Cirque Calder consisted of dozens of wire-frame acrobats, trapeze artists, exotic dancers, a knife-thrower, sword-swallower and performing animals which were rigged with thread, pulleys, cranks and springs to tumble, gallop, lift, gyrate and even catch each other in mid-air. These displayed Calder's early aptitude for mathematics and his training as a mechanical engineer. Even though Calder called it his circus in a suitcase, these creations eventually came to occupy an impressive 6 valises.

•Accented with wood, bronze, cork, fabric scraps, beads and bits of jewellery, the figures and animals each possess a distinct personality. Made with precision, they walk the fine line between toys and sculpture with the most impressive ones being the:•Weightlifter which can bend, pick up a set of weights, straighten up and put the weights down•Exotic dancer gyrating by means of a hand-crank•Trapeze artists which can swing and catch each other in mid-air with precision•Ambulance unit which can walk when pulled by a thread•Horses pulling chariots that mimic galloping while their charioteers bend back and forth in the act of whipping them•Although Calder eventually moved beyond the Cirque Calder, the aesthetics and qualities of the circus, mainly suspense, surprise, spontaneity, humour, gaiety, whimsy, wit, glee and playfulness, would form the foundation for his work over the next 50 years..

• This may well be true as Calder’s monumental mobiles combine engineering, tension, balance, grace and lively acrobatic motion – qualities found in the best circus performances

This is our Calder in the National Gallery:Jacaranda   1949

wire and sheet metal with oil paint335 x 444.5 cm approx.Purchased 1977National Gallery of Canada (no. 18812)

Alexander Calder's invention of the mobile liberated sculpture from a static base, setting it in motion. These abstract forms are inspired by the jacaranda tree, which the artist saw during a visit to Brazil. Hints of the long, graceful branches and leaves can be seen in the carefully balanced wires and floating forms.

Read more at Suite101: Cirque Calder: Alexander Calder Inspired By His Sculpted Wire Circus In A Suitcase http://www.suite101.com/content/cirque-calder-a17894#ixzz13sd9yO89

Other Artists inspired by the Circus

Picasso"The Acrobat Family- 1905"

"A lot of it is slightly nostalgic. It's about being an outcast. It's about being shiftless, going from town to town, not being rooted. That's sort of autobiographical," said Shell, who noted that Picasso in 1905 was not yet a superstar in the art world and had been shuffling back and forth between Paris and Barcelona, Spain."For him, these figures were timeless creators, living by their skill, their wits. He felt himself to be like that, too," Shell said.Two years later, Picasso would paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon ("The Young Ladies of Avignon") and revolutionize modern art. The circus pictures were part of his Rose Period, "the last big figurative outpouring before he becomes a cubist," Shell said.Shell of Baltimore Museum of Art

http://artisnotdead.blogspot.com/2007/03/circus-of-picasso.html

From the blue and pink years until engravings of the 1960 years, the circus was a recurring topic in the life of Picasso. At the turning of the 19th century, Picasso would go to the circus shows in Barcelona. In Paris, for Picasso and his friends, circus would always be an occasion to meet and explore art. But it is only at the end of 1904 and 1905 that the circus would become the central topic of the compositions of this period of his

life.

Otto Dix, used the circus "to underscore the seedy elements of postwar Weimar society," according to the wall text for The Disdainers of Death (1922), an etching of squinting, almost contemptuous acrobats

Picasso's German contemporaries Max Beckmann and Otto Dix. Where Picasso was romantic about the vagabond circus life and the familial bonds between the performers, Beckmann and Dix rendered the grotesquerie of the often-seedy profession in their trademark ragged lines and flattened space. Prints such as Beckmann's Behind The Scenes and Dix's The Disdainers Of Death reveal the unglamorous underbelly of circus life that's hidden from the public view

Toulouse Lautrec-At the circus horse and monkey dressage

Acrobats at the Circus- Toulouse Lautrec

Marc Chagall- The Circus Horse

George Seurat- The Circus

This work was exhibited in its unfinished state at the seventh Salon des Independants, from March 20 to April 27, 1891. Seurat died during the

exhibition

Seurat was fond of novels by the Goncourt brothers, and here gives us a visual counterpart to the Freres Zemgano , a tale about the circus. Lucie Cousturier wrote that the composition ``sets itself the aim of holding within one sweeping curve all the upward-running lines denoting circus fun and games.'' The movement from right to left, that of the lady bareback rider who, ``a modern goddess of grace and freedom,'' is doing acrobatics on the white horse, is counterpoised by the movement of the clown in the center with the garish wig, who arises perpendicularly

from the foreground.

1891; Oil on canvas, 73 x 59 1/8 in; unsigned; Musee d'Orsay, Paris

…on the brighter side….Henri Matisse

• Bright coloured collages-In 1943, while convalescing from a serious operation, Henri Matisse began work on a set of collages to illustrate an, as yet, untitled and undecided text. This suite of twenty images, translated into "prints" by the stenciling of gouache paint, became known as Jazz---considered one of his most ambitious and important series of work.

If you want to read more: http://www.gregkucera.com/matisse.htm

                              

•Balancing act: The BMA celebrates the circus life as portrayed by Fernand Léger. | Fernand Léger. Cirque. 1950. The Baltimore Museum of Art. ©2008 Artists Rights Society

George Bellows, "The Circus" (detail), 1912, Oil on canvas. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; gift of Elizabeth Paine Metcalf (1947.8)

Seurat 1891

Max PechsteinBaltimore Museum of Art, "The Circus. 1918,"

Captures the dynamism of a stunt riding act but also contains sinister overtones

legercirque.JPG600 × 484 - Fernand LEGER : Lithographie : Le cirque 1953passion-estampes.com

Now be inspired by the video of our own circus-Cirque De Soliel

see the wiki for the videos

• Your assignment- to create a 3D wire sculpture of whimsical circus characters inspired by Cirque de Soliel

• The must be at least 80 % wire and copper foil, additional items, ribbon, studs, stones

• The figure must be 6”-8”• Must look good from various angles because

we will be making a class mobile a la Calder.