Poster for the exhibition of the Calder Circus at the Whitney Museum and the little Clown again, thi

Poster for the exhibition of the Calder Circus at the Whitney Museum and the little Clown again, this time blowing not the trumpet but a balloon.Shortly after arriving in Paris in 1926, Calder decided to expand upon the moving toys he had been constructing since childhood and devised his circus. It was, in a sense, his calling card, a way of announcing his arrival to the artistic circles to which he longed to be welcomed. Before long he would befriend artists to whom he remained close for much of his life, including Mondrian, Léger, Miró and Duchamp.Ceremoniously removing his figures of wire, wood, cork, leather and hand-sewn fabric from valises — two at first, and then, as his acts and performers grew in number, five — Calder would methodically arrange his rings, his trapeze and his high wire to entertain comrades with a circus that was more well-mannered French than raucous American in style. Souce NYTFor decades the circus, lent by the artist in 1970 to the Whitney Museum of American Arts, has set flight to the imaginations of children and adults. -- source link

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