Josephine Baker (III)

July 1926

To Paris as a crew member of the cargo steamer Galileo

In July 1926 Calder sets out for Paris as a crew member of the British cargo steamship Galileo as far as Hull, continuing by train and boat. In Paris he enrols at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and sets up a studio at 22 rue Daguerre in Montparnasse, later moving to 7 villa Brune in the same district.

1927

His first solo exhibition, in Paris

Calder’s first solo exhibition takes place in 1927 at the gallery of Jacques Seligmann in Paris.

1927

Among the Parisian avant-garde

In 1927 Calder settles in Paris and grows close to the avant-garde, including Cocteau, Man Ray, Mondrian, Desnos and Le Corbusier; he befriends Fernand Léger, Jean Arp and Marcel Duchamp, and Joan Miró becomes a friend for life.

1928

His first show in a US commercial gallery

In 1928 Calder holds his first solo show at a commercial gallery in the United States, the Weyhe Gallery in New York.

1929

A show of wire sculptures at Galerie Billiet

Calder invented wire sculpture, or “drawing in space”, and in 1929 he holds in Paris, at Galerie Billiet, his first solo show of such works; the preface to the catalogue is written by the painter Jules Pascin, a friend from the Montparnasse cafés. “Hi!”, an early example of his wire sculpture, is in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art.

June 1929

Meets Louisa James on a steamship

In June 1929, travelling by boat from Paris to New York, Calder meets his future wife, Louisa James (1905–1996), a daughter of Edward Holton James and grandniece of the author Henry James and the philosopher William James. They will marry in 1931 and stay together for the rest of his life; they will have two daughters.