Alexander CalderAmerican, 1898–1976The Wild Beast Cage
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “The Wild Beast Cage” now? Collection: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
New York, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- Source
- The museum
Details
- Accession number
- 80.50.2
In the catalog
Sources
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Image: Whitney Museum of American Art — © the artist or rights holder
In the life of Alexander Calder
The whole life1930
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.
