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Alexander CalderSky Bird (Braniff International Airways), Alexander Calder1974
1974
About the Item
Artist: Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Title: Sky Bird (from the Braniff International Airways Flying Colors Collection)
Year: 1974
Medium: Lithograph on Arches paper
Size: 20 x 26 inches
Condition: Excellent
Edition: 3,000, plus proofs
Inscription: Signed and dated in the lithographic plate; embossed with Flying Colors Collection blindstamp lower right.
Notes: Published by Braniff International Airways, Dallas, TX; printed at Atelier Fernand Mourlot, Paris.
ABOUT THE FLYING COLORS COLLECTION:
In 1972, Dallas based Braniff International Airways commissioned Alexander Calder to paint a full-size Douglas DC-8-62 airliner, dubbed a “flying canvas.” Models of the aircraft were sent to Calder at his studio in France in November of 1972, and work commenced. Braniff announced the Calder collaboration to the public on June 4, 1973. It was the first time in aviation history that an seminal fine artist had ever painted a aircraft to be used in regular airline service. Painting occurred at the carrier’s Dallas Love Field Operations and Maintenance Base. Calder also supervised the painting of the aircraft at the Braniff Base, and personally painted the two left side engine nacelles with two of his designs called “Beastie” and “Sunburst”. While at the hangar Calder befriended many of the Braniff Maintenance and Engineering personnel and even painted his unique designs on their lunch pails and toolboxes. At the time, some of the employees did not like the designs but quickly changed their mind once they realized they became owners of their own original Calder artworks. The following original lithographs comprise the Braniff International Airways “Flying Colors Collection” that was created by Calder and Braniff to commemorate their historic collaboration.
ALEXANDER CALDER (1898-1976) Credited with the invention of the mobile, Alexander Calder revolutionized twentieth-century art with his innovative use of subtle air currents to animate sculpture. Calder was prolific and worked throughout his career in many art forms. An accomplished painter of gouaches and sculptor in a variety of media, Calder is best known for poetic arrangements of boldly colored, irregularly shaped geometric forms that convey a sense of harmony and balance. He also designed jewelry, tapestry, theater settings and architectural interiors. From the 1940s on, Calder's works, many of them large-scale outdoor sculptures, have been placed in virtually every major city of the Western world.
- Creator:Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976, American)
- Creation Year:1974
- Dimensions:Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 26 in (66.04 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Fairfield, CT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1342114178172
Alexander Calder
The American sculptor Alexander Calder is known as the father of the mobile, a moving artwork composed of delicately balanced sculptural forms suspended from the ceiling.
Because Calder's parents, both artists themselves, did not want him to suffer the hardships of trying to make a living in art, they encouraged the young Calder to study mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He worked a number of jobs, including as a hydraulic engineer and draftsman for the New York Edison Company, before deciding to pursue an artistic career. He never abandoned his engineering background, however, applying his understanding of gears and moving parts in all his artworks, from mechanical toys like the Cirque Calder (1931) and his revered prints to his free-standing abstract sculptures, called stabiles.
In 1926, Calder moved to Paris and established a studio in the Montparnasse quarter. He began creating the many parts of his famous miniature circus from found materials, such as wire, string, cloth, rubber and cork. Designed to be transportable, Cirque grew to fill five suitcases over the years. Always interested in putting forms in motion, Calder also pioneered a new art form called wire sculptures, which he described as “drawings in space.” Like his famous mobiles, the wire sculptures were suspended so that they turned with any movement of the air, presenting different forms when viewed from different angles.
In the 1950s, Calder returned to his roots in mechanical engineering, creating monumental abstract sculptures that verged on the architectural. He worked from loose gestural drawings like this preparatory sketch for his Man Stabile, from 1966. Throughout his career, he also worked as a set designer for the theater, as well as an illustrator and printmaker, producing vibrant, whimsical drawings for books and journals.
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