SOTHEBY'S Hong Kong | Eunice Kwok | +852 2822 5509 | eunice.kwok@sothebys.com
Winnie Tang | +852 2822 8129 | winnie.tang@sothebys.com
SOTHEBY'S S|2 PRESENTS
Alexander Calder: Imagining the Universe 12 - 25 September 2015 Sotheby's Hong Kong GalleryFour Spirals And Six Dots, 1971, Gouache and ink on paper, 74.9 x 109.9 cm
"The universe is real but you can't see it. You have to imagine it. Once you imagine it, you can be realistic about reproducing it."- Alexander Calder
Hong Kong, 2 September 2015 Sotheby's S|2 is delighted to present Alexander Calder: Imagining the Universe - A Selling Exhibition at Sotheby's Hong Kong Gallery from 12 to 25 September 2015. This exhibition explores the power of Calder's imagination through his innovative and inventive body of work. Calder's uniquely enchanting forms characterise him as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, and S|2 is honoured to showcase an important selection of his all-encompassing sculptures and gouaches. Featuring
20 works executed between the late 1920s up until the year of the artist's death in 1976, this show explores a broad spectrum of Calder's acclaimed career, including works across the media of wire sculpture, hanging mobiles, standing mobiles and works on paper.
Clare Cosman, Gallery Director, Sotheby's Hong Kong Gallery, says: "We are honoured to bring to Hong Kong this wide-ranging array of important works by one of the 20th century's great creators, Alexander Calder. In this expansive context, these pieces offer a rare opportunity to engage with Calder's work, created throughout his prolific and enduring career"
Miety Heiden, Head of Contemporary Private Sales, North America, Sotheby's, says: "Building on the success of Alexander Calder: Works on Paper from 1930 to 1976 presented in our New York gallery in 2013, this is S|2's second selling exhibition dedicated to Calder. The beauty of Calder's work is that it speaks to audiences worldwide and we are thrilled to open a new and exciting exhibition celebrating the legendary artist in our Hong Kong gallery space."
About Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Born in 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, Alexander Calder was the son of a painter and sculptor. As a young child, he was always influenced by craft and began sculpting toys and jewelry for his sister's dolls. Calder's interest in the arts continued into his twenties when he joined the Art Students League in New York to study painting and drawing. He later moved to Paris in 1926, where he created his famed Cirque Calder, a miniature wire circus that he performed amongst his social cohorts.
Calder was heavily influenced by abstraction and explored shape, movement and space as subject matter. By navigating the boundaries of artistic precedent, Calder's groundbreaking kinetic sculptures garnered the new term
'mobiles' in 1931, coined by his esteemed contemporary Marcel Duchamp. The breadth of Calder's oeuvre grew to
include wire sculpture, mobiles, stabiles, bronzes, jewelry, painting, works on paper and more.
Calder's first retrospective was held at the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery, Springfield, MA in 1938 and soon after he became the youngest artist to ever receive a survey exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in
1943. He represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale in 1952 and later held retrospectives at such renowned
institutions as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 1964, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris in
1965 and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 1976, to name a few. The success Calder experienced during his lifetime is unparalleled and he is remembered today as among the most important artists in the dialogue of modern and contemporary art.
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Exhibition Highlights
Poisson avec tête humaine
1976
Sheet metal, wire and paint
132.1 x 72.4 x 71.1 cm
Untitled
circa 1960
Sheet metal, brass, wire and paint
26 x 38.1 x 12.7 cm
Rattle In The Orange
1969
Gouache and ink on paper
74.9 x 109.5 cm
Four Spirals And Six Dots
1971
Gouache and ink on paper
74.9 x 109.9 cm
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NOTES TO EDITORS
I) EXHIBITION DETAILS
Date and Opening Hours
12 - 25 September 2015
Monday - Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday: 11am - 5pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays
Venue
Sotheby's Hong Kong Gallery, 5/F, One Pacific Place,
88 Queensway, Hong Kong
Enquiries
(852) 2822 5566
II) SOTHEBY'S SELLING EXHIBITION IN OCTOBER (subject to change)
Date | Event | Venue |
2 - 7 October | Age of Elegance | Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre |
III) ABOUT S|2
S|2 is the private sale and gallery arm of Sotheby's global Contemporary Art department, offering exceptional works of art through unique and important exhibitions throughout the world. Exhibition programming has included shows dedicated to the works of individual artists, such as Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to shows curated by art world figures including Vito Schnabel and Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld. The works on display in S|2 are available for private sale, offering an exciting new dimension to the Sotheby's experience. In addition to gallery programming, the S|2 team also facilitates bespoke private acquisitions and sales.
IV) ABOUT SOTHEBY'S HONG KONG GALLERY
Sotheby's Hong Kong Gallery has enabled the Company to significantly expand its business in Asia beyond its traditional twice-annual auction series in April and October, offering a variety of exciting events throughout the year. Since its inauguration in May 2012, the Gallery has been home to selling exhibitions and non-selling exhibitions including Modern Masters, Age of Elegance - European Paintings, Furniture and Works of Art from the 19th Century, New Ink - An Exhibition Of Ink Art By Post 1970 Artists From The Yiqingzhai Collection, Beyond The Paper Screen - An Exhibition of Japanese Erotic Prints from The Uragami Collection, From Warhol, With Love - A Selling Exhibition Of Andy Warhol Works, The Eternal Spring - A Selling Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramics by Caroline Cheng, Labyrinths - A Selling Exhibition of Contemporary Ink Painting by Zeng Xiaojun, Gardens of Pleasure: Sex In Ancient China - An Exhibition Of The Ferdinand M. Bertholet Collection, Song Yige: Another Dimension - A Selling Exhibition, The World According to Nara - A Selling Exhibition, as well as auctions such as Boundless: Contemporary Art and Magnificent Bordeaux from a European Cellar, The Mei Yun Tang Collection Of Paintings By Chang Dai-Chien "A Master's Secrets Unveiled", Snuff Bottles From The Mary And George Bloch Collection and Fine Timepieces and Jewels. All these initiatives demonstrate Sotheby's commitment to catering to the diversifying interest of collectors in Asia.
V) FOR MORE NEWS FROM SOTHEBY'S
Visit: www.sothebys.com/en/inside/services/press/news/news.html
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Sotheby's has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 9 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of Sotheby's Fi nan cial Ser vices , the world's only full-service art financing company, as well as private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department, and two retail businesses, So theb y' s Dia mo nd s and Sotheb y's W ine . Sotheby's has a global network of 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).
Images are available upon request
Exhibition catalogue is available online at www.sothebys.com or through So t heb y's Ca ta lo gue iP ad Ap p
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