In a recent issue of THE NEW YORKER, PETER SCHJELDAHL, reviewing the new “ALEXANDER CALDER: THE PARIS YEARS, 1926 – 1933” exhibit currently up at the WHITNEY, says: “Calder’s early career as a darling of the smart-set expatriates and eagerly condescending French Americanists in Jazz Age Paris has long since yellowed and cracked. (Does any self-respecting twenty-first-century child, of any age, genuinely enjoy the parlor whimsies of Calder’s “CIRCUS” with its awful confidence of being irresistible?)”
We did. But then, we love JUNO, glockenspiels and scribble fonts.
Watch these video excerpts of Calder performing the “Circus” from a 1955 film by JEAN PAINLEVE and let us know what you think.