Saucers and Spirals 1973

In 1973, Alexander Calder put brush to paper to make this painting with a cool constellation of shapes. I imagine him shuffling around in his studio, thinking about Miró, maybe even Arp, but really just feeling his own way as he applied these bold strokes and colors to the surface, a sort of jazz improvisation on canvas. Those black outlines remind me of comic books and cartoons, or maybe Matisse’s cut-outs – a dance between spontaneity and control. And I love how he’s built up these different layers of shapes and colours. You can almost feel him searching around on the canvas, trying things out, like when I work on a painting. That big black spiral, a whirlpool drawing you in, is a motif he used often. For me, it speaks to how artists are always in conversation with one another across time, exchanging ideas, riffing off one another's moves. It's a reminder that art is this ongoing process of exploration and expression, with no single right answer.