Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Alexander Calder
The Oval Spiral

1974

About the Item

A painting by Alexander Calder. "The Oval Spiral" is a Post-War, geometric abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds and blacks by artist Alexander Calder. The artwork is signed lower right, "Calder 74" and has been given the Calder Foundation authentication number A07006. Although we know him today best for his sculptures, Calder started his artistic career as an abstract painter, always preferring gouache as a medium for his painted work. Sometimes known as opaque watercolor, gouache is a water-soluble paint which handles much like watercolor for the artist. Watercolor and gouache both allow the artist to paint quickly, but both are also extremely unforgiving mediums as they dry quickly and are difficult to rework. However, unlike watercolor, which has a translucent appearance, gouache contains white pigment, rendering the color opaque. Calder valued gouache for exactly these reasons, it dried quickly like a watercolor but rendered bold colors that he sought. In the 1920s, Calder began to experiment with sculpture. Bending and twisting metal in order to “draw” in three-dimensional space. By the 1940s and 50s, Calder had become so popular as a sculpture that he largely left painting behind, concentrating on creating the kinetic sculptural vocabulary of that we know him for. Toward the end of his life, however, once he had secured fame and renown as a sculpture, Calder returned to the more intimate and less physically involved process of gouache painting in earnest. As he returned to gouache painting with a lifetime of experience as a sculptor, Calder began to transcribe the three-dimensional vocabulary of sculptural forms he had developed onto the two-dimensional surface of the paper. Like his sculpture, the gouache works echoes Mondrian’s bright palette of primary colors and the whimsical nature of Miro’s work, both artist’s that Calder admired greatly. Provenance: Perls Galleries, New York Private Collection, Florida, 1974
  • Creator:
    Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1974
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 43.25 in (109.86 cm)Width: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Palm Desert, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 388231stDibs: LU938465092
More From This SellerView All
  • Vive
    By Alexander Calder
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    A painting by Alexander Calder. "Vive" is a Post-War abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds, blacks, and blues by artist Alexander Calder. The artwork is signed lower right, "Calder 72...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache

  • Directions
    By Alexander Calder
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    A painting by Alexander Calder. "Directions" is a Post-War abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds, blacks, yellows, and oranges by artist Alexander Calder...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache

  • L' Envolee
    By Alexander Calder
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    A painting by Alexander Calder. "L'Envolee" is a Post-War abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds and blacks by artist Alexander Calder. The artwork is sig...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache

  • Cercles
    By Alexander Calder
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    An artwork by Alexander Calder. "Cercles" is an abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds, blues, and blacks by Post-War, American artist Alexander Calder. T...
    Category

    Late 20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache

  • Mickey Mouse
    By Alexander Calder
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    A painting by Alexander Calder. "Mickey Mouse" is a Post-War abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds, blacks, yellows, and oran...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache

  • Red Petals, Blue Moon
    By Alexander Calder
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    A painting by Alexander Calder. "Red and Black Spiral" is a Post-War abstract painting, gouache and ink on paper in bold colors of reds, blacks and blues by artist Alexander Calder. The artwork is signed lower right, "Calder 72...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Ink, Gouache

You May Also Like
  • Hidden by Clouds, Original Landscape Painting, Cotswolds Rural Artwork
    By Rosie Phipps
    Located in Deddington, GB
    Hidden by Clouds is an original framed painting by artist Rosie Phipps. Featuring her gestural and expressive use of mark making to create these beautifully intimate landscapes. Rosi...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Post-War Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

  • Home, African Village Scene Orange Sky, African American Artist
    Located in Miami, FL
    An African village scene is characterized by bold colors and a punchy flat orange sky combined with a post-impressionist paint application for the tree and the house. In the foreground, we see an African mother with two children standing outside her "Home." The work is created by African American artist Vincent D. Smith. It is signed lower right, Vincent, showing homage to Vincent Van Gogh, from whom the art word borrows some influence. Clearly, Smith has developed his own personal style, combining an African American persona with an African subject matter. Original metal frame under glass. The uploaded video is coming up light. Use the still image as a reference for color. Vincent DaCosta Smith (December 12, 1929 – December 27, 2003) was an American artist, painter, printmaker and teacher. He was known for his depictions of black life. Early life Vincent DaCosta Smith was born on December 12, 1929, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant[1] neighborhood of Brooklyn, to Beresford Leopole Smith and Louise Etheline Todd. Both were immigrants from Barbados.[2] He was raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn and Smith drew what he saw around him.[citation needed] He attended an integrated school where he studied piano and the alto sax. worked a range of jobs before he became a full-time artist. At 16, he worked for the Lackawanna Railroad repairing tracks. At 17, Smith enlisted in the army and traveled with his brigade for a year.[3] It wasn't until after his time in the army that Smith began to paint and printmaking.[4] At the age of 22, Smith was working in a post office where he grew to be friends with fellow artist Tom Boutis.[1] Art education Tom Boutis took Smith to a Paul Cézanne show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1951. After seeing the Cézanne show, Smith resigned from his position at the post office and began reading extensively about art. He studied at the Art Students League of New York with Reginald Marsh.[citation needed] Later, he began to sit in on classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where the instructors would let him join in on the lessons and the criticisms.[3] After attending classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the Art Students League of New York, he was accepted and received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine,[4] where he studied from 1953 to 1956. Beginning in 1954,[5] he started taking official classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and studied painting, etching, and woodblock printmaking.[4] Career Smith was a figurative painter who used abstractions and materiality to make something new.[6] Smith's work depicts the rhythms and intricacies of black life through his prints and paintings.[7] Many of his paintings and prints rely heavily on patterns.[6] According to Ronald Smothers, Vincent D. Smith's work "stood as an expressionistic bridge between the stark figures of Jacob Lawrence and the Cubist and Abstract strains represented by black artists like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis."[7] Smith has described his own work as "a marriage between Africa and the West."[3] Over his life, he worked in both painting and printmaking. In 1959, Smith won the John Hay Whitney Fellowship which allowed him to travel to the Caribbean for a year.[8] During this year he was deeply inspired by the customs and lifestyle of the native people.[8] Throughout his life, Smith attended various art schools but it was not until turning 50 he returned to college to earn an official degree.[7] From 1967 until 1976 he taught at the Whitney Museum’s Art Resource Center.[2] Later in 1985, he taught printmaking at the Center for Art and Culture of Bedford Stuyvesant. Death and legacy Smith died in Manhattan on the December 27, 2003 from lymphoma and related complications.[7] Smith was aged 74.[7] His work is included in many public museum collections including Art Institute of Chicago,[9] Newark Museum of Art,[1] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),[1] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[1] Yale University Art Gallery,[10] Davidson Art Center,[11] Fitzwilliam Museum,[12] Brooklyn Museum,[13] Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[14] Rhode Island School of Design Museum,[15] among others. Exhibitions Over the course of his career, he had over 25 one-man shows and had his work shown in over 30 group shows.[7] Vincent D. Smith had shown in a range of galleries and museums over his life-span. In 1970, he had his first individual exhibition at the Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. His first retrospective was in 1989 at the Schenectady Museum in Schenectady, New York.[2] Solo shows: 1974 - The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine[2] 1974 - Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York[2] 1989 - Schenectady Museum (Retrospective 1964-1989), Schenectady, New York Awards and honors This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) 1959 – John Hay Whitney Fellowship, John Hay Whitney Foundation, New York City, New York[8] 1967 – Artist in Residence, Smithsonian Conference Center 1968 – Grant, The American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York 1971 – Creative Public Service Award for the Cultural Council Foundation, New York 1973 – National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities Travel Grant, New York 1973-1974 – Childe Hassam Purchase Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, New York 1974 – Thomas P. Clarke Prize, National Academy of Design, New York 1981 – Windsor and Newton Award, National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic , New York. 1985-1986 – Artist-in-Residence, Kenkeleba House Gallery, New York. Works Below are some selected works: Study for Mural at Boys and Girls High School, 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York A Moment Supreme, 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York The Triumph of B.L.S., 1973, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Jonkonnu Festival, 1996, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Murals Mural for Crotona/Tremont Social Service Center, The Human Resource Administration, New York, New York 1980[1] Mural for Oberia D. Dempsey Multi-Service Center of Central Harlem, New York, New York 1989[1] Publications Print portfolios Impressions: Our World, Volume I (a portfolio of seven etchings - five with aquatint, two with embossing). Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Vivian Browne, Eldzier Cortor...
    Category

    1970s Post-War Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Gouache

  • "Portrait of Woman I" Watercolor Painting 24" x 16" inch by Kawkab Youssef
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "Portrait of Woman I" Watercolor Painting 24" x 16" inch by Kawkab Youssef Signed and dated 1962 A short history of Kawkab Youssef El-Assal: With a ...
    Category

    20th Century Post-War Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • "Dune" Watercolor on Paper Painting 10" x 12" in (1977) by Inji Efflatoun
    By Inji Efflatoun
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "Dune" Watercolor on Paper Painting 10" x 12" in (1977) by Inji Efflatoun signed & dated Inji Eflatoun pursued free studies in art. Since 1942, she has participated in the exhibiti...
    Category

    20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Watercolor

  • "Bathing Nude III" Watercolor Painting 24" x 17" inch (1959) by Kawkab Youssef
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "Bathing Nude III" Watercolor Painting 24" x 17" inch (1959) by Kawkab Youssef Signed and dated 1959 A short history of Kawkab Youssef El-Assal: Wit...
    Category

    20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • "The Gathering" Watercolor Painting 24" x 17" inch (1962) by Kawkab Youssef
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "The Gathering" Watercolor Painting 24" x 17" inch (1962) by Kawkab Youssef Signed and dated 1962 A short history of Kawkab Youssef El-Assal: With a...
    Category

    20th Century Post-War Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

Recently Viewed

View All