Fourth Flurry '48

Artist: Alexander Calder (American, 1898–1976)

1948

American Paintings and Sculpture

By appointment, Wurtele Study Center

This three-dimensional work consists of approximately thirty white discs of graduated size attached to metal wires of various weights and lengths. This type of suspended sculpture is known as a "mobile," the term that Marcel Duchamp suggested for Alexander Calder's unique form of sculpture that moved in response to natural forces. Fourth Flurry '48 sways and shifts in response to air currents and the counterbalances of gravity, creating a constantly changing, asymmetrical yet balanced composition. Looking up at the slowly moving sculpture, the viewer is presented with a sensation evocative of a wide variety of natural forms and systems in motion, from snowflakes to solar systems, from atoms to galaxies. At the same time, this airy graceful sculpture functions on purely abstract terms. The white circular shapes, which create a rhythm through their repetition, are juxtaposed with the black-painted wire lines, creating a whimsical, abstract drawing in space.

Medium

Painted sheet metal and wire

Dimensions

80 × 76 1/2 in. (203.2 × 194.3 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Katherine S. Dreier to the Collection Société Anonyme

Accession Number

1948.298

Geography

Made in Roxbury, Connecticut

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Sculpture

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
The artist, Roxbury, Conn.; exchanged with Katherine S. Dreier (1877–1952), West Redding, Conn., 1948 [see note 1]; transferred to the Société Anonyme, New York, 1948; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1948

Note 1: Calder exchanged the object with Dreier for a work by artist Paul Klee (Herbert et al., 1984).
Bibliography
  • Ruth L. Bohan et al., The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, ed. Jennifer Gross, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2006), 190, ill.
  • Dr. Eric Zafran, Calder in Connecticut, exh. cat. (New York: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2000), 82, 83, 84, fig. 86
  • Paula B. Freedman and Robin Jaffee Frank, A Checklist of American Sculpture at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 44, no. 45, ill.
  • Robert L. Herbert, Eleanor S. Apter, and Elise K. Kenney, The Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984), 127, no. 119, ill.
  • Andrew Carnduff Ritchie and Katherine Neilson, Selected Paintings and Sculpture from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1972), no. 134, ill.
Object copyright
Copyright Alexander Calder Foundation
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

Subject

Signed

Signed and dated on one disk "Calder / 1948 / IV"

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

View IIIF manifest

The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more

Linked Art

API response for this object

Linked Art is a Community working together to create a shared Model based on Linked Open Data to describe Art.