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Calder JewelryJul 25, 09 thru Jan 3, 10Alexander Calder, one of the most innovative American artists of the 20thcentury, is duly famous for his ubiquitous and often monumental mobile and stabile sculptures. A new exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art is the first ever to take a comprehensive look at his no-less prolific output in a smaller art form—jewelry. In addition to his work in sculpture, painting, drawing, and prints, Calder (1898–1976) created over 1,800 works of jewelry in his lifetime. Many of them were made and given as gifts to friends and family or worn by a virtual who’s-who of 20th-century cultural history. Calder Jewelry includes a highly representative cross-sample of 90 of his elaborate and often whimsical necklaces, brooches, bracelets, rings, earrings, and tiaras. Full of sinuous lines, spirals, coils, and arabesques, each piece bears an unmistakable three-dimensionality and sense of movement, characteristic of his work in sculpture, transforming its wearer into a living work of art.
Though his jewelry has received little attention in recent decades, it was widely known during his lifetime, even achieving a measure of commercial success in spite of the fact Calder refused to create it multiple editions. Calder personally handcrafted each piece in such non-precious materials as steel, brass, and colored glass, preferring to leave visible hammer and chisel marks rather than giving it a fine machine-like polish. For additional context, visitors to the exhibition can also check out the supplemental exhibition at SDMA, Picasso, Miró, Calder, and discover Calder’s formal connections to his own works in other media and to those of his surrealist colleagues. San Diego Museum of Art
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