Spirals, Two White One Black 1969

This is *Spirals, Two White One Black* by Alexander Calder. Look at those free-wheeling spirals. The ink looks super wet and fluid, the kind that bleeds into the paper, right? You can imagine him twirling his wrist, letting the brush dance across the surface. What was Calder thinking as he made it? Maybe he was remembering his mobiles, translating their airy movement into something solid, something on paper. The black and white stripes create this vibrating ground, like a visual hum. Then you’ve got the pops of color – red and blue – anchoring the composition with this playful energy. It makes me think of Miro and those other mid-century guys trying to find a new visual language. Artists are always riffing off each other, you know, keeping the conversation going. Painting is a place to work things out, it’s always a search, not a find.