Red and Blue with Yellow Lips 1944

Alexander Calder did this drawing, 'Red and Blue with Yellow Lips', who knows when. It’s a wild face, all swirly lines and bold colors. I wonder if Calder started with those crazy eyes, a red spiral and a blue one, like targets. Then the mouth, so loud and yellow, like it's got something to say, or maybe it's just singing. I can imagine Calder, pen in hand, letting the lines flow, each one building on the last. Those triangles for the nose, each one smaller than the last, like an echo into infinity. And that ear, all wound up, listening to the world, or maybe just to the buzz in Calder's own head. His line reminds me of Klee, who was also obsessed with childlike faces. It's like he's saying, 'Here's a face, but it's also a map of feeling, a diagram of seeing.' It's raw and playful, like a jazz solo. Calder is riffing off of life, his pen moving like those famous sculptures, finding balance in the chaos.