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Circus Horse

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Under ARS,but Calder estate need to approve item and they only meet once a month

© Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Circus Horse

circa 1945
ink on paper
10 3/4 in. x 9 7/8 in. (27.31 cm x 25.08 cm)
Gift of Robert and Joan Doty, 1984.22

Alexander Calder
American
1898–1976

(For biographical information on Alexander Calder, see entry under Calder, Petit Disque Jaune 1983.82 )

When he drew Circus Horse about 1945, Alexander Calder was better known for his abstract sculpture. Yet he remained fascinated by the circus themes that first attracted him in the 1920s. Acrobats, trained animals, and other performers continued to appear in Calder's playful drawings even as the spirit of whimsy that underlies them began to manifest itself in the artist's mobile and stabile compositions. Toward the end of his life, Calder brought the two strains together in his "Animobiles," a series of sculptures suggestive of various animal forms.

Sparsely delineated with a rigid, bent line reminiscent of Calder's earlier wire figures, Circus Horse rears and paws the air with a toothy grin. Horses were among the artist's favorite animal subjects, and he gave them form in drawings, wire sculpture, and even wooden toys. With its animated pose and unblemished coat, Circus Horse recalls the famous Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria. These horses, known for their beauty and training, gained added celebrity in the United States in 1945, following the dramatic rescue by American soldiers of a herd of Lipizzaners trapped behind Nazi lines in Czechoslovakia.

Circus Horse was presented to the Currier Museum of Art in 1984 by Robert and Joan Doty.

VSD

REFERENCE

Jean Lipman. Calder's Universe. New York: The Viking Press in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1980.


Exhibition
1988 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Drawings from the Permanent Collection." March 22 - April 17.


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