Untitled (Study for Mobile) 1932

Alexander Calder made this untitled study for a mobile with pencil and gouache on paper. The balance in this composition is just amazing; you can sense the potential movement in the forms. Look closely and you'll notice that he has allowed the gouache to bleed into the paper ever so slightly. The texture is smooth, almost like velvet. See how the line appears tentative, searching, very direct. It speaks to a process of working and reworking. It’s tempting to see this as an exercise in planning, but the composition feels intuitive and expressive, capturing a moment of creative insight. Calder and Joan Miro both worked with similar shapes and lines. You can feel the energy between them. It speaks to the way artists feed off each other and develop their own languages. We don’t always have to pin down one meaning; art can be an open-ended conversation.