“MASI Lugano presents Calder. Sculpting Time, the first comprehensive monographic exhibition in a Swiss public institution devoted to Alexander Calder in nearly fifty years. By introducing movement to the static art form of sculpture, Calder extended the medium beyond the visual into the temporal dimension. Drawing from major international public and private collections—including a large body of works loaned from the Calder Foundation, New York—Calder. Sculpting Time features over 30 of the artist’s masterpieces created between 1931 and 1960. 

Calder. Sculpting Time at MASI explores the profound and transformative impact of this revolutionary artist, delineating his development of a formal and sculptural language characterized by unprecedented innovation during the 1930s and 1940s. The exhibition, designed as an open plan without walls, offers the public the opportunity to see works that span Calder’s early abstractions or sphériquesto a magnificent selection of later mobiles, stabiles and standing mobiles of various sizes. Also on view is a large body of constellations—a term proposed by Marcel Duchamp and James Johnson Sweeney for the artist’s sculptures made of wood and wire in 1943.” — MASI Lugano

“Calder’s legacy endures not only in the physical presence of his works but also in the profound impact his art has had on shaping the way we perceive and interact with sculpture. His contribution to art history extends far beyond the innovative use of materials and the employment of new techniques, capturing the subtle essence of fleeting moments. Engaging with this temporal dimension is the goal of this exhibition,” the curators conclude.

Calder. Sculpting Time was curated by Carmen Giménez and Ana Mingot Comenge.

Title image: Alexander Calder. Quatre systèmes rouges, 1960. Iron and painted steel. 155 × 200 × 200 cm. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark. Donation: The New Carlsberg Foundation. Photo: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art / Poul Buchard / Brøndum & Co © 2024 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.