Black Butterfly 1969

Alexander Calder painted this butterfly in 1969, probably with gouache or tempera. It's a flat, graphic image made with bold, simple marks, and colours that don't mix. I imagine Calder wanted to show the butterfly's energy rather than make a realistic copy. See how those black spirals create the wings, almost vibrating on the page, while other shapes of yellow, red, and blue suggest the flora? It feels playful, spontaneous – you can see how the forms are simplified to their essence, almost like pictograms. Calder was famous for his mobiles, and this painting has that same sense of movement and balance. He's composing with color and form, just like he's composing in space. It's a distillation of his vocabulary. It reminds me of Miró and Arp - how artists speak to each other across time! Painting can be a real conversation like that. Anyway, what do *you* see when you look at this?