Whale, II

1936

Barr’s exhibition “Cubism and Abstract Art”

Calder is one of three Americans included in Alfred H. Barr Jr.’s 1936 exhibition “Cubism and Abstract Art”; the Museum of Modern Art had championed him since the early 1930s.

1938

His first retrospective, in Springfield

Calder’s first retrospective is held in 1938 at the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. Other accounts call the 1943 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art his first retrospective.

1943

The retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art

In 1943 the Museum of Modern Art hosts a Calder retrospective curated by James Johnson Sweeney and Marcel Duchamp; the show has to be extended because of the number of visitors. It is sometimes called the artist’s first retrospective.

1946

The Louis Carré show and Sartre’s essay

In 1946 a Calder show organised by Duchamp, made up mainly of hanging and standing mobiles, opens at Galerie Louis Carré in Paris; because of the postal service’s strict size limits he takes some works apart and sends them by mail. The show makes a huge impact, as does the catalogue essay by Jean-Paul Sartre.

1952

The Grand Prize of the Venice Biennale

In 1952 Calder wins the Grand Prize of the Venice Biennale. His monumental stabiles soon become part of the architectural ensembles of many cities in Europe and America.

1955

Takes part in documenta I

Calder takes part in the first documenta (1955); he will also exhibit at the second (1959) and the third (1964).