Tight Rope Artists from Calder’s Circus, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

NEW YORK, NY October 15, 2008 —The circus is coming to the Whitney Museum. Starting tomorrow, "Calder’s Circus" will be on display as part of the new exhibition: "Alexander Calder: The Paris Years." Wire portraits, caricatures, kinetic toys, early mobiles and a film of Calder performing his famous miniature circus will all be on display. Curator Joan Simon says it's the first time "Calder’s Circus" has been shown in such authentic detail:

SIMON: It’s shown act by act. The characters who played together are in the acts together. We’re showing it with all the mechanisms that Calder invented to made to make the mechanisms stand up, twirl around so that the lion threatens the lion tamer before he shoots him; so that Fanny undulates in a very life-like way so that you really get a sense of the breadth of it.

Simon says this show looks at Calder as a young artist when he developed all the ideas that became the mobiles he’s known for.

More about "Calder's Circus"

Slideshow: Calder's Circus