Blue Times Question 1969

Alexander Calder made this gouache on paper – Blue Times Question – sometime around 1969. The colour palette is simple: red, blue, black against a white background. Each mark is clearly defined, like different thoughts or memories floating in the air. I imagine Calder starting with the blue, placing it deliberately on the page. Then the red ones appear as a counterpoint; warm against cool, a kind of push and pull. That snaking black shape looks so playful, kind of jazzy, a musical note maybe. I reckon he was vibing with Joan Miró when he made it. Painters are always in conversation, aren’t they? Reaching across time, borrowing, stealing, transforming. The black spiral anchors the work, like a secret, or the beginning of something. Each gesture, each colour choice feels both spontaneous and carefully considered. It's a reminder that paintings are a way of thinking, a way of experiencing the world.