Dissolving Spiral 1963

Alexander Calder made this gouache painting in 1963, probably in a studio filled with light and the playful energy that also fills his wire sculptures and mobiles. Look at the way the yellow paint pools and thins across the paper! It's a sunny, happy ground for the shapes that float across the surface. I imagine Calder, a maker of objects that move, as being in constant conversation with energy. Aren’t those spirals a visual record of movement? The black lines almost vibrate. And those black shapes -- are they falling? Or are they held in place by the sunny atmosphere? What I love about Calder is his ability to make the work feel so breezy, weightless. Painters are always in dialogue with each other, you know? Calder's playfulness reminds me a bit of Miró, another artist who wasn't afraid to embrace a sense of childlike wonder. For me, abstract painting at its best opens up a space where everything is possible, and nothing is fixed.