The Circus

1930

In Mondrian’s studio: the shock of abstraction

A visit to Piet Mondrian’s studio in 1930, with its environment-as-installation, “shocks” Calder into fully embracing abstract art, toward which he had already been tending. He abandons the static quality of Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism and sets himself the task of creating dynamic systems that reflect the continuous changeability of nature; another stimulus toward kinetic art was a planetarium that showed the movements of celestial bodies.

1931

A show of abstract constructions at Galerie Percier

Calder’s first exhibition of abstract constructions is held in 1931 at Galerie Percier; Fernand Léger writes the preface to the catalogue.

1931

Joins Abstraction-Création

In 1931 Calder joins the non-figurative group Abstraction-Création; in 1933 he exhibits with it in Paris.

1933

Back in America: a farmhouse in Roxbury

In 1933 Calder and Louisa return to America, to a farmhouse they have bought in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they will raise a family.

1934

MoMA buys its first Calder for $60

The Museum of Modern Art buys its first Calder for $60, after talking him down from $100; the museum has championed him since the early 1930s.