Calder Foundation

Chess set

Date c. 1944
Media
Wood and paint
Dimensions
18" × 18" (board)
Collection
Calder Foundation, New York; Mary Calder Rower Bequest, 2011
Related exhibitions  2
Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2018)

Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, England. Calder: From the Stony River to the Sky. 26 May 2018–9 September 2018.

Solo Exhibition
Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany (2021)

Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany. Alexander Calder: Minimal / Maximal. 22 August 2021–13 February 2022

Solo Exhibition
Chronology  1
12 December 1944–31 January 1945

“The Imagery of Chess: A Group Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, Newly Designed Chessmen, Music, and Miscellany” is presented at Julien Levy Gallery, New York. Calder exhibits two chess sets alongside works by Duchamp, Ernst, and Tanguy, among others.

Works / Household Object 55
Related Timeline
1937–1945 Public Commissions and the War

In 1937, Calder completed Devil Fish, his first stabile enlarged from a model. He received two important commissions: Mercury Fountain (1937) and Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939). His first retrospective was held in 1938 at the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts, followed by another in 1943 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.