UNTITLED 1966

Alexander Calder made this untitled work in 1964 with ink on paper. Look at that blue and red, so simple and direct; Calder wasn't messing around with blending or shading here. He was embracing the joy of color as a pure, unadulterated experience. The ink bleeds a little, creating these soft edges that give the whole scene a kind of dreamlike quality. And those spindly legs! They're so delicate, like they might just snap if you looked at them too hard. But there’s something resilient about them too. Take the bird on the right, its leg juts out at an impossible angle, yet somehow it balances, poised and ready to take flight. Calder reminds me a lot of Joan Miró, with his playful approach to abstraction and his love of simple forms. But Calder brings a unique sense of humor to the table, a kind of childlike wonder that’s hard to resist. It shows us that art doesn’t always have to be serious or complicated. Sometimes, it’s enough to just have fun with it.