High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100
Oct 18, 2025–March 2026
High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100
Alexander Calder, Lion Tamer, Lion and Cage, from Calder's Circus, 1926-31. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; 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 83.36.34.1a-f. © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 celebrates the centennial of one of Alexander Calder’s most iconic works and one of the most beloved works in the Whitney’s collection, Calder’s Circus (1926–31). In 1926, Calder began constructing his miniature multi-act spectacle while living in Paris, using commonplace materials—wire, fabric, cork, wood, string, and found objects—to create a cast of acrobats, animals, and other circus performers including clowns, a sword swallower, and a ringmaster. The figures were brought to life through performances that Calder staged for audiences of artists and friends, among them Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, and Isamu Noguchi. These dynamic performances were set to music, complete with lighting and narration by Calder, and could last up to two hours—representing a radical new form of performance art. Calder stored the Circus in a set of five suitcases and would continue to present the work on both sides of the Atlantic.
A touchstone for Calder’s artistic development, Calder’s Circus reveals his early fascination with movement, balance, suspense, and ephemerality—concepts that would shape his pioneering invention of the mobile and define his sculptural practice in the decades that followed. This exhibition situates the Circus within Calder’s experimental engagement with this popular form, drawing connections between its energetic interplay and his later abstract works. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of a work that continues to enchant audiences and illuminate the foundations of Calder’s visionary practice.
High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 is organized by Jennie Goldstein, Curator of the Collection, and Roxanne Smith, Jennifer Rubio Assistant Curator of the Collection.