Calder, Miro

Sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976) and painter Joan Miró (1893-1983) became lifelong friends after their first meeting in Paris in 1928. This book and the exhibition it accompanies are about their extraordinary friendship and the early years of their careers.

Calder and Miró shared many artistic interests, and the book is organized around common themes such as the circus, bestiary, universe, and constellations. The artists shared an ambition to create monumental works for public spaces and, while waiting for those opportunities, achieved monumentality on a reduced scale. Miró's small Constellations evoke the tradition of Romanesque frescoes, while Calder's earliest stabiles and mobiles occupy space in a way that transcends their size, paving the way for later monumental works. The editors, in their two essays and in their organization of the colour plates, focus on the first two decades of the artists' careers, culminating in the monumental public commissions that Calder and Miró received for the decoration of the Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, in 1947.

Both artists combined colour, shape and line in new ways, relying primarily on these limited elements to explore compositional space. While they worked independently, their resulting creations have long been recognized as reinforcing each other's vision. When their works are shown together, as John Canaday observed in his 1961 New York Times review, '- the element of fantasy is heightened in Calder's impeccably balanced structures and the element of calculation becomes more apparent than usual in Miró's looser inventions.'

Extensive illustrations provide fresh insights into the visual dialogue between them and show the ways in which they expanded and erased the traditional boundaries in art. Their charming correspondence is published here for the first time and rare photographs of the two men together, and of the gifts of artwork they exchanged, document the friendship. A detailed chronology opens a window into their personal and professional lives. The book accompanies the exhibition Calder/Miró at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2 May - 5 September 2004), and at The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (9 October - 23 January 2005).

Elizabeth Hutton Turner is senior curator at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.; Oliver Wick is guest curator at the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland.