Cornucopia 1955

Curator: Right now we're looking at "Cornucopia", an acrylic on canvas painting created by Alexander Calder in 1955. Editor: It strikes me as simultaneously playful and slightly menacing, actually. That bold red form dominates, almost threatening to spill out of the frame. Curator: Calder's well-known for his mobiles and standing mobiles, and this painting demonstrates that he translated his understanding of form and movement to a two-dimensional surface as well. We often consider his work within the historical trajectory of abstract expressionism. Editor: Absolutely, and even though it's abstract, I can't help but see that central red shape as, well, a cornucopia. But not overflowing in a traditional sense. It is more a suggestive element within a visual game of geometry that carries a primitive sense of bounty and harvest. What cultural echoes were you considering? Curator: Good question. One lens is situating it in the postwar context, where the United States was experiencing an economic boom, it influenced a collective consciousness around consumerism and abundance, an atmosphere reflected in Calder's composition. He translated this mood into the non-representational. The fact is that “Abstract Expressionism,” for all of its claims to stand outside politics, benefited immensely from the Cold War cultural politics designed to establish the US as a global cultural hegemon. Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way, but I am glad that the symbols resonate within collective experience—after all, the imagery we employ tells as much about where we want to go as where we’ve been. Curator: Exactly, and examining art history is about revealing the motivations and consequences behind these visual decisions, so a "Cornucopia" in '55 does just that. Editor: Looking again, there's an optimism embedded there despite my initial feeling—something hopeful in the arrangement of those simple shapes and colors. Curator: Well, thanks for digging deeper and revealing those multiple readings. Editor: Always a pleasure to let the art speak.