CROISIÈRE 1931

Alexander Calder built 'Croisière', a delicate sculpture of wire, wood and paint. It’s like a three-dimensional drawing in space, this thing. I imagine Calder bending and shaping each piece of wire, coaxing it into a dance. He seems to be asking, “How can I capture movement, the feeling of being on the high seas, with a few simple lines and shapes?” The large circle creates a sense of enclosure, almost like a world contained within. Then you see the black and white spheres floating near the top. They look like buoys bobbing in the water, don't they? The long, curving wire that extends from the base and rises above the sphere brings a playful disruption to the geometry, cutting through the space like a rogue wave. It must have been such a fluid gesture to create. Calder was onto something, and he passed it along to the rest of us.