Sunny Spots 1967

Alexander Calder made this gouache painting in 1967 using fluid washes of color and bold, graphic marks. I can almost feel the artist moving around the paper, spontaneously reacting to the emerging image. It’s like he's improvising a dance, and we get to see the footprints left behind. I wonder, did he begin with the yellow ground, like sunshine spreading across the page? Or did those floating shapes and spindly black lines come first, searching for their place in the light? There’s a beautiful tension here between chance and control. Look at how the red bleeds into the yellow, creating these soft, blurred edges, and then, bam! A crisp black circle anchors the composition. This reminds me of Miró or maybe even some early Kandinsky. It's like Calder is playing with abstraction, but always hinting at something recognizable, something joyful. You can feel the energy of the hand, the sheer delight in making. It’s like a visual playground, where shapes and colors collide and converse. And that's what keeps drawing me back – this sense of endless possibility.