Calder Foundation
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Circus Scene, 1926

Work

Circus Scene

Date 1926
Media
Oil on canvas-board
Dimensions
69 3⁄4" × 83 1⁄2"
Collection
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of Richard B. Bailey & Nanette C. Sexton in memory of Margaret Calder Hayes, 1991
Oil Painting
Related exhibitions  1
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1998)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Alexander Calder: 1898–1976. 29 March–12 July 1998.

Solo Exhibition
Archive
Works / Oil Painting 82
Firemen’s Dinner for Brancusi (1926)
Firemen's Dinner for Brancusi, 1926
Untitled (1930)
Untitled, 1930
Untitled (1930)
Untitled, 1930
Untitled (1930)
Untitled, 1930
Related Timeline
1926–1930
1926–1930 Wire Sculpture and the Circus

Soon after moving to Paris in 1926, Calder created his Cirque Calder. Made of wire and a spectrum of found materials, the Cirque was a work of performance art that gained Calder an introduction to the Parisian avant-garde. He continued to explore his invention of wire sculpture, whereby he “drew” with wire in three dimensions the portraits of friends, animals, circus themes, and personalities of the day.