Turtles and Tadpoles 1943 - 1944

This work, Turtles and Tadpoles, was made in 1954 by Alexander Calder, with gouache and ink on paper. Looking at it, I can imagine Calder bending over the paper, letting his hand and eye coordinate these playful shapes and colours. There's something really beautiful about how the organic forms, rendered in vibrant blues, reds, and greens, seem to float and interact within the space, surrounded by a loose, almost watery ground of blacks and pinks. You get the feeling that he’s not trying to represent turtles and tadpoles in a literal way, but rather evoke their essence—their movement, their life force. It makes me think of other painters, like Miró, who also embraced a kind of biomorphic abstraction. But Calder brings his own sensibility to it, a kind of lightness and joy that's really infectious. What a conversation these artists are having, even across time. It’s all one big, juicy, playful painting party, and we're invited.