Floating White Orbs 1975

Alexander Calder made this playful gouache painting, Floating White Orbs, in 1975. What I like about this work is Calder’s attitude to artmaking as a process, it feels like the painting has been knocked together. There are no frills, the colors are laid down one by one, but it feels joyful somehow. The paint has a real materiality, not glossy or overworked. You can see the brushstrokes. Calder has built the image using a primary palette, the yellow, orange, and black sitting vividly behind these almost nonchalant off-white circles. I enjoy how the bands of black, painted horizontally across the canvas, suddenly turn into a swirling vortex, a disruption. It creates a sense of depth, of things happening. For me, this piece has a lot in common with Joan Miró’s constellation paintings. Calder takes the same approach to creating a pictorial space, where simple abstract forms float freely, suggesting a whole universe of possibilities.