Calder Foundation

Firemen's Dinner for Brancusi

Date 1926
Media
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
36" × 42 1⁄8"
Collection
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gift of the Artist (no. 63.58)
Related exhibitions  2
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
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2016)

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Alexander Calder & Fischli/Weiss. 29 May–4 September 2016.

Group Exhibition
Chronology  1
27 February 1926

American painter Walter Kuhn organizes a stag dinner at the Union Square Volunteer Fire Brigade, Tip Toe Inn, New York, in honor of sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s first visit to the United States. Calder paints Firemen’s Dinner for Brancusi commemorating the event.

Works / Oil Painting 81
Related Timeline
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.