A couple weeks ago, Jill and I had a wonderful idea Saturday morning. We packed the kids up and got on the bus downtown headed for the Calder and Michelangelo exhibits at the Seattle Art Museum. Going somewhere as a family on the bus provides big adventure for us. Dylan, being a 3 year old boy, loves all things that move, especially trains, planes, diggers, rockets, kites, balloons, and somewhere in that list are buses, but mainly they are a place from which to see lots of these other things. [Some trip photos]

As a parent, the bus is pretty cool too, cause you get to hang on to your child, have them on your lap. No seat belts, no separation. If something passes by on the other side of the bus and it’s not crowded, you can just go there and look at it. It’s a pretty radical change from the normal constraints of a car…

We got out on third and went into the museum. And I have to admit, somewhat abashedly, that this was my first time since the new building, expansion, and renovation (May 5, 2007) that I have been there.

What a pleasure. So big and open and clean and full of light. So much room.

We didn’t linger…not with the kids. It was straight up to the Calder exhibit which was number one for me as I’ve always loved his work.

The space and the limited number of folks there Saturday morning was great. We could all walk anywhere we pleased pretty much around the big painted circles demarcating boundaries below the mobiles. Dylan was pretty into it, Lila was asleep at this point I think, and Jill and I were daydreaming around with all the shadows and shapes moving along the walls. So many flowers everywhere and celestial bodies.

It’s so wild to see an object with multiple lives. the object itself and then the dynamic life of moving shadows. There are some amazing pieces in this exhibit.

It is supplemented with some photos of Calder working; portraits of him in his chaotic studio set in calm NY farm land. But to top it all or really to provide a glimpse of Alexander Calder himself was the movie showing in the back room. Jill fed Lila and Dylan and I plopped down right on the floor rapt with joy and wonder at this amazing movie of him performing his traveling circus.

The man’s joy for and attention to life rollicks around this film and it’s “characters” wire, cork, cloth figurines made mobile, suddenly incarnate with the pull of a string. It’s impossibly ingenious and joyfully intoxicating. I recommend going if only for this film…but of course you’d get to see the work too. Watching this, one understands that Calder is a figurative master. He evokes the movement and shape and muscles of a trotting horse or the barbell-lifting strongman with wires and wheels. Amazing.

Alexander Calder performing le cirque

I’ve included links to a very similar version to the one they are showing @ SAM, but it’s not the same at all. Much of the effect is lost and I recommend soaking in the man’s work and then seeing le cirque!

Calder Le Cirque Clip 1
Calder Le Cirque Clip 2

Movie info from YouTube: “Carlos Vilardebo’s 1961 film of Alexander Calder’s “circus,” an intricately assembled performance piece played out by handmade characters including jugglers, sword swallowers, clowns, and animals. These figures, crafted from a collection of “cork, wire, wood, yarn, paper, string, and cloth,” were each assigned a series of movements and manipulated by the artist to perform specific circus acts. With performances held at various locations in Paris and New York through the mid 1930s, Calder’s circus helped to establish him in avante-garde circles. Jean Cocteau, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Le Corbusier, Thomas Wolfe, and André Kertész were among those who saw the celebrated Cirque Calder over the years.AAA “