$25,830
Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976) Aula Magna Inscribed "AULA MAGNA/-Caracas" l. l. and "STAGE RIGHT" l.c., dated and signed "July 2, 1952/A. Calder" l.r. Gouache, pencil, and ink on blueprint paper, sheet size 13 3/8 x 24 in. (33.8 x 61.0 cm), framed. Condition: Toning, mat burn, tack holes to l.l. corner, handling creases, acid burn, remnants of old hinges at intervals around perimeter of the reverse. Provenance: Gift (1952) from the artist to Robert Bradford Newman (1917-1983), professor of architectural acoustics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and co-founder of Bolt, Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts; to Mary Shaw Newman in 1983; to the estate of Mary Shaw Newman. Literature: Robert B. and Mary S. Newman Collection (Boston: J. Schwartz Design, 2014), illustrated (color) p. 11. N.B. This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation, New York, as application number A26188. By the 1950s, Alexander Calder had become an internationally recognized and respected artist. He was chosen to represent the United States in the 1952 Venice Biennale at which he won the grand prize for sculpture. That same year, he designed sets and costumes for the play Nuclea which opened in Paris, he worked on the design for a fountain for architect Eero Saarinen's General Motors Technical Center project in Michigan, and he accepted a commission from architect Carlos Raúl Villan
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2017-01-27
