Alexander Calder made wire
portraits of celebrities—artists, composers, and actors who were well known at the time—and of his friends, family, and people he knew and saw often. Calder used different thicknesses of wire, bending it into lines and shapes to make the portraits. This is a portrait of the French
composer Edgard Varèse. The composer and the artist were neighbors. They lived in the same building in Paris. Varèse liked to visit Calder and watch him work.
