Calder Jewelry

Alexander Calder's jewellery has the same linear yet three-dimensional quality as his famous mobiles, and the parts that comprise each piece are hammered, shaped, and composed in a fashion that echoes the artist's creation of his sculpture. Calder produced more than 1,500 pieces of jewelry, beginning in 1906 when he adorned his sister's dolls with copper wire gathered from the streets. This use of non-precious materials and found objects guided his inventive jewellery technique, from his bohemian years of the 1920s and 1930s to the war years. His jewellery was coveted by the Surrealist coterie, and today is still highly sought after by collectors and museums. "Calder Jewelry" features around 300 bracelets, brooches, necklaces, and rings, all of which are exquisitely reproduced in newly commissioned photographs. Also included are examples of Calder's inventory drawings; the boxes he made to store the jewellery; historic photographs of his jewellery worn by notable patrons, art collectors, and artists (for instance, Peggy Guggenheim and Georgia O'Keeffe); and a chronology. Essays by Mark Rosenthal and Jane Adlin discuss the relationship of these objects to the artist's other endeavours and in relation to the history of jewellery.