Alexander Calder

The Brass Family

1929

Wire sculpture of a strong person holding up four acrobats in different poses, standing on a black base.

On view
Floor 8

Date
1929

Classification
Sculpture

Medium
Brass wire and painted wood

Dimensions
Overall: 67 × 41 1/8 × 8 7/8in. (170.2 × 104.5 × 22.5 cm)

Accession number
69.255

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the artist

Rights and reproductions
© Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

API
artworks/2760

Audio

Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929

In American Legends: From Calder to O'Keeffe and Signs & Symbols

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Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929

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Narrator: This large sculpture, called The Brass Family, is one of many sculptures of circus performers Calder made apart from his miniature Circus. It is much larger than any of those elements, and its parts don’t move. In fact, in many ways it is a work about stability, and immobility. The large nude man who anchors this family is rock-solid: hugely muscular and constructed out of a heavy-gauge wire. His graceful family is more daintily constructed and more vulnerably posed—but there is little sense of physical danger. At the same time, it definitely reminds us that the circus is an entirely different world—The Brass Family doesn’t have the family structure that most of us are used to!
Caroline Simonds: In those days, in the '20s, you were—you were born into a trunk. You were born into the circus.
Narrator: Caroline Simonds is a clown and a former acrobat. She runs the Paris-based organization Rire-Médecin, which brings clowns to the pediatrics wards of hospitals.
Caroline Simonds: You just started off by standing on your father's shoulders when you were eighteen months old. Soon as you could walk they made you stand on your father's shoulders and then on his head, and then they flipped you up in the air and, they caught you by your feet.

Exhibitions

Installation photography

Installation view of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 2026). From left to right: Alexander Calder, Wire Sculpture by Calder, 1928; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, 1929; Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929. In vitrine, from left to right: Alexander Calder, Invitations to performance of Calder’s Circus/Cirque Calder (7 Villa Brune, Paris), 1930; Alexander Calder, Invitation to performance of Calder’s Circus/Cirque Calder (Chez Hawes-Harden, New York), 1929; Alexander Calder, Invitation to performance of Calder’s Circus/Cirque Calder (Chez Matter, New York), 1942; Alexander Calder, Invitation to performance of Calder’s Circus/Cirque Calder (7 Villa Brune, Paris), 1930; Alexander Calder, Invitations to performance of Calder’s Circus/Cirque Calder (14 rue de la Colonie, Paris), 1932; Alexander Calder, Invitation to performance Calder’s Circus/Cirque Calder (Fifty-Sixth Street Galleries, New York), 1929. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 
Installation view of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 2026). In vitrines: Alexander Calder, Calder’s Circus, 1926–31. Back, from left to right: Alexander Calder, Wire Sculpture by Calder, 1928; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, 1929; Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929; Alexander Calder, Circus Scene, 1929; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, c. 1927; Alexander Calder, Untitled (Circus scene; polo match), c. 1926; Alexander Calder, The Flying Trapeze, 1925. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 
Installation view of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 2026). In vitrine: Alexander Calder, Calder’s Circus, 1926–31. Back, from left to right: Alexander Calder, Wire Sculpture by Calder, 1928; Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929; Alexander Calder, Circus Scene, 1929; Alexander Calder, Untitled (Circus scene; polo match), c. 1926; Alexander Calder, The Flying Trapeze, 1925. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 
Installation view of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 2026). In vitrine: Alexander Calder, Calder’s Circus, 1926–31. Back, from left to right: Alexander Calder, Wire Sculpture by Calder, 1928; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, 1929; Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929; Alexander Calder, Circus Scene, 1929; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, c. 1927. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 
Installation view of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 9, 2026). From left to right: Alexander Calder, Acrobats, 1929; Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929; Alexander Calder, Circus Scene, 1929; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, c. 1927; Alexander Calder, Untitled (Circus scene; polo match), c. 1926; Alexander Calder, The Flying Trapeze, 1925. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 
Installation view of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 18, 2025–March 9, 2026). From left to right: Alexander Calder, Victorine (The Circus Queen), 1928; Alexander Calder, Wire Sculpture by Calder, 1928; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, 1929; Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929; Alexander Calder, Circus Scene, 1929; Alexander Calder, Acrobats, c. 1927. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Ron Amstutz

From the exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 
Alexander Calder, The Brass Family, 1929. Brass wire and painted wood, 67 × 41 1/8 × 8 7/8 in. (170.2 × 104.5 × 22.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the artist 69.255. Photograph by Sheldan Collins. © Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

From the exhibition Collecting Calder