Diagonal 1964

Here is the sound of the circus on paper! This playful gouache, Diagonal, was made in 1964 by Alexander Calder. There's such a sense of immediacy in the way the colors are laid down, like he's capturing a fleeting moment. The brushstrokes are so direct and full of energy. You can almost feel his hand moving across the page. Look at the yellow circle, how it sits next to the black dot, you can see the white of the page beneath. The shapes are simple, but the relationships between them, the way they balance and interact, feel surprisingly complex. You have the sense that Calder is thinking in terms of relationships between forms and colors. That spiral on the left is a key element. Its simple shape gives the impression of movement like it's twisting and turning in space. It reminds me a little of Miro, another artist who could make a whole world with just a few simple shapes. And I guess that's what art is, right? Taking a few simple things and turning them into something that feels alive.