Alexander Calder

Fanni, the Belly Dancer
1926–1931

Vintage mechanical dancing doll on a red-fringed platform with arms raised in a joyful pose.
Vintage mechanical dancing doll on a red-fringed platform with arms raised in a joyful pose.

On view
Floor 7

Date
1926–1931

Classification
Sculpture

Medium
Galvanized steel wire, fabric, rhinestones, thread

Dimensions
Overall (variable): 13 3/8 × 6 × 8 1/2in. (34 × 15.2 × 21.6 cm)

Accession number
83.36.22.1a-c

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. One half the funds were contributed by the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Charitable Trust. Additional major donations were given by The Lauder Foundation; the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.; the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc.; an anonymous donor; The T. M. Evans Foundation, Inc.; MacAndrews & Forbes Group, Incorporated; the DeWitt Wallace Fund, Inc.; Martin and Agneta Gruss; Anne Phillips; Mr. and Mrs. Laurance S. Rockefeller; the Simon Foundation, Inc.; Marylou Whitney; Bankers Trust Company; Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Dayton; Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz; Irvin and Kenneth Feld; Flora Whitney Miller. More than 500 individuals from 26 states and abroad also contributed to the campaign.

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

API
artworks/5513

Fanni, the Belly Dancer is one of the “performers” in Calder’s Circus. Movement is an essential element of the work, as exemplified by Fanni’s especially lifelike ability to shift her weight, swivel her hips and undulate her sewn and stuffed cloth stomach. Calder wrote that he made her “with a kind of screw that pierced her body lengthways,” and rotated her with a gear system that he devised from an egg-beater attached to a wire crank.

Part of a series:
Calder's Circus
88 works

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Sculpture of a whimsical figure with a round head, wire limbs, and colorful shoes, striking a joyful pose against a white background.
A whimsical yellow figure balancing on a curved wire with red-shoed feet, against a plain background.
Handstand figurine with black shoes and red cheeks on a white background.
A vintage toy dog made of brown fabric on wheels with a pull string, against a gray background.
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A whimsical mobile with a wooden house and dangling paper flowers against a gray background.

Alexander Calder
186 works in the collection

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