Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy August 12, 2010

This summer, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, premieres the major traveling exhibition 'Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy,' the first exhibition to assess Calder's influence on the new generation of contemporary sculptors. The presentation of sixty of Calder's iconic works is mounted along with approximately twenty sculptures by seven contemporary artists who have been directly influenced by Calder: Martin Boyce, Nathan Carter, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Aaron Curry, Kristi Lippire, Jason Meadows, and Jason Middlebrook. Calder has long been a popular and beloved modernist master, but it is only recently that young contemporary artists have turned to his work and its example of hands-on explorations of form, balance, color, and movement. The selection of Calder's works range from the 1940s to 1970s and are drawn from the MCA's extensive holdings that span his career, complemented by a remarkable array of works drawn from private collections in Chicago and major American public and private collections.