Blue Boomerang and Hourglass 1963

Alexander Calder made this gouache painting in 1963 with just a few colours, yellow, red, blue and black. It's almost like a Matisse cut-out, but instead of paper he’s using paint to capture these playful biomorphic shapes. See that snaking line that seems to dance across the paper? It makes me think about Calder's mobiles, those wire sculptures floating in space. Here, the line seems to want to do the same, to escape the flatness and become something else entirely. It is simple, but look how it curves and bends, almost like it's having a conversation with the other forms on the page. The texture is matte, and you can see the brushstrokes, making the whole thing feel direct and honest. It reminds me a bit of Miró, another artist who wasn't afraid to embrace the silly and the strange. And just like Miro, Calder asks us to play along, to let our imaginations run wild and see where they might take us.