Blue Moon 1975

Alexander Calder made this gouache painting, Blue Moon, in 1975. Calder is best known for his mobiles – suspended kinetic sculptures that move with air currents. But here he plays with a static composition, a playful arrangement of brightly colored circles, ovals, spirals and a geometric three-dimensional shape on a yellow-orange background. Calder’s work sits within a moment of art history where artists were experimenting with abstraction. His biomorphic forms are reminiscent of the work of Joan Miró and Jean Arp. Calder's artistic trajectory was shaped by his engagement with the avant-garde circles of Paris in the 1920s and 30s. What is interesting here is the way the formal conventions of modernism were translated into a more popular idiom. To understand this, scholars might research exhibition histories, critical reviews, and the artist's biography to trace how Calder's work moved between the elite circles of the art world and a broader public.