Alexander Calder

Trapeze Artist

1926–1931

A worn cloth and wire marionette hangs by its hands from a twisted metal bar.
A worn cloth and wire marionette hangs by its hands from a twisted metal bar.

On view
Floor 8

Date
1926–1931

Classification
Sculpture

Medium
Galvanized steel wire, cloth, cork, and leather

Dimensions
Overall: 6 1/8 × 2 × 1 3/4 in. (15.6 × 5.1 × 4.4 cm)

Accession number
83.36.44

Credit line
Purchase, with funds from a public fundraising campaign in May 1982. One half of 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 De Witt Wallace Fund, Incorporated; 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/5543

Part of a series:
Calder's Circus
88 works

Worn cloth toy monkey balancing upside down on its head with bent arms and raised legs.
A rag doll-like sculpture, made of yellowed cloth with a round button-like nose, small rhinestone eyes, a curve for a smile, orange yarn hair, wire hands, and floppy shoes.
A small handmade doll with a wooden head, cloth body, and wire arms and legs standing.
Small handmade figure with wire limbs and yellow shoes standing with arms raised.
A small handmade figure in a yellow cloth balances with arms outstretched on a curved wire stand.
A small polka-dot cloth doll balances on a thin wire arch weighted by two clay stones.
Small handmade fabric figure balancing on its hands with pebble feet and a painted head.
Small stuffed monkey doing a headstand next to a worn miniature gym pommel horse.
A small handmade cloth dog on wooden wheels with a front pull string.
A tall wire-and-fabric puppet wearing a hat and scarf stands with one arm raised.

Alexander Calder
185 works in the collection, 46 exhibitions

View artist

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Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

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