Calder: Discipline of the Dance

Calder, Discipline of the Dance, on view from 22 March–28 June 2015 at Museo Jumex, marks the first Calder retrospective in Mexico in over twenty-five years. Constituting a survey of nearly one hundred works made between the 1920s and 1970s, the exhibition’s conceptual starting point is Calder’s inspiration and experience in Latin America. “Calder is a perpetuator of unexpected forms of balance through which sculpture has mastered the discipline of the dance,” wrote celebrated critic Juan García Ponce in 1968. Difficult to define yet unmistakably present, the naturalistic energy inherent in Calder’s sculpture was immediately recognized and celebrated by his Latin American friends during his lifetime.

The exhibition originates from the Calder Foundation’s preeminent collection and features the artist’s signature wire sculptures, mobiles, stabiles, large-scale sculptures, paintings, and jewelry. Selected works include Aztec Josephine Baker (1930), a near life-size portrait of the Parisian cabaret performer with a dozen jointed articulations, and the harmonious Scarlet Digitals (1945), which remained unviewable to the public for over six decades. Calder: Discipline of the Dance is curated by Alexander S. C. Rower, president of the Calder Foundation, New York, and grandson of the artist.