City Park

1922

A steamship, a logging camp and the decision to become an artist

After working as a hydraulic engineer and draughtsman for the New York Edison Company, in June 1922 Calder takes a mechanic’s job on the passenger ship H. F. Alexander: he sleeps on deck and one early morning off Guatemala sees a fiery sunrise on one side and the moon “like a silver coin” on the other. When the ship docks in San Francisco he travels to Aberdeen, Washington, where his sister and her husband, Kenneth Hayes, live, and works as a timekeeper at a logging camp; the mountain scenery makes him write home for paints and brushes, and soon he decides to move back to New York to pursue a career as an artist.

1923

The Art Students League in New York

Back in New York, Calder enrols at the Art Students League, studying briefly with George Luks, Boardman Robinson and John Sloan. He had already attended evening drawing classes in 1922, and he completed a course at the League in 1923.

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.