About this Item: Edition de l'Herne, Paris 1974. From the book of E.E. Cumming, Santa Claus Illustrated by Alexander Calder with 9 etching in black all signed and numbered in pencil. Complete portfolio, with text, justification page, and the 9 signed and numbered etchings, guarded in the original wrappers and pictorial clamshell case. Limited edition of 175 copies, of which this copy is one of the last 75 copies in Arches vellum paper. Alexander Calder was born July 22, 1898, in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. In 1919, he received an engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken. Calder attended the Art Students League, New York, from 1923 to 1925, studying briefly with Boardman Robinson and John Sloan. As a freelance artist for the National Police Gazette in 1925, he spent two weeks sketching at the circus and developed a particular fascination for the subject. He also made his first wire sculpture in 1925, and the following year he made several constructions of animals and figures with wire and wood.Calder?s first exhibition of paintings took place in 1926 at the Artist?s Gallery, New York. Later that year, he went to Paris and attended the Acad?mie de la Grande Chaumi?re. In Paris, he met Stanley William Hayter, exhibited at the 1926 Salon des Ind?pendants, and began giving performances of his miniature circus. The first show of his wire animals and caricature portraits was held at the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in 1928. That same year, he met Joan Mir?, who became his lifelong friend. Subsequently, Calder divided his time between France and the United States. In 1929, the Galerie Billiet gave him his first solo show in Paris. He met Frederick Kiesler, Fernand L?ger, and Theo van Doesburg and visited Piet Mondrian?s studio in 1930. Calder began to experiment with abstract sculpture and in 1931 and 1932 introduced moving parts into his works. These moving sculptures were called ?mobiles,” while his stationary constructions were to be named ?stabiles.”He exhibited with the Abstraction-Cr?ation group in Paris in 1933. In 1943, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a retrospective. During the 1950s, Calder traveled widely and executed Towers (wall mobiles) and Gongs (sound mobiles). He won the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. Late in the decade, the artist worked extensively with gouache. During this period, he executed numerous major public commissions. In 1964?65, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, presented a Calder retrospective. He began the Totems in 1966 and the Animobiles in 1971, both of which are variations on the standing mobile. A Calder exhibition was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1976. Alexander Calder died November 11, 1976, in New York. Good, framed in it's original black shadow box with float mounted. Acrylic glazing. This piece is also available with
all nine pieces. Including the book cover. Please inquire for
the total pricing on all 9 pieces