Alexander Calder's Horizontal Permanently Installed in Front of Centre Pompidou

NEW YORK, NY.- The Calder Foundation announced the permanent installation of Calder’s 1974 monumental standing mobile Horizontal in front of the Centre Pompidou’s iconic façade. The placement of the sculpture on the museum’s beloved plaza was determined in accordance with architect Renzo Piano. 

The 8-meter sculpture, which had been in storage following its last exhibition in Bonn in 1993, recently underwent extensive restoration with the collaboration of the the Calder Foundation and the sponsorship of KPMG France. 

The Centre Pompidou possesses one of the largest public holdings of Calder’s work, thanks to a gift of thirty works made to the institution by the artist during his lifetime in 1966 and a subsequent donation of an additional eight by the artist’s estate in 1983, including Horizontal. 

Alexander S.C. Rower, President of the Calder Foundation and Calder’s grandson, explains, “France was my grandfather’s adopted home for many years, first during the ‘20s and ‘30s during his early artistic development when he lived in Paris, and later from the ‘50s to the ‘70s, when he created many of his monumental works while living in Saché in the Loire Valley. Ensuring a preeminent collection of Calder’s work in France’s most prestigious museum of modern art was of utmost importance to him and to my family.” 

The Calder Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving the legacy of the artist Alexander Calder, grants its restoration consulting services free of charge to public institutions worldwide, a program which has already served the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Museum Ludwig, Cologne and the Honolulu Academy of the Arts. The Foundation’s archives, which contain Calder’s original engineering drawings for his monumental works as well as extensive historic photographs and documentation, in addition to its unparalleled conservation experience, allow the Foundation to ensure that restoration is completed per the artist’s original intent. 

Over the past 23 years, the Calder Foundation has documented over 22,000 original works by the artist and has amassed an extensive archive comprised of hundreds of thousands of documents, historic photographs, books, magazines and newspaper clippings, and films. The Foundation is also charged with managing a large collection of Calder works, which it loans to museums around the world, including most recently a major retrospective at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in 2009 and Calder’s Portraits: A New Language at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 2011. Upcoming exhibitions include Alexander Calder: Movement in space, scheduled to open at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague in February 2012. 

By partnering with the Atelier Calder residency program operating out of Calder’s former house and studio in Saché, France, and awarding the biannual Calder Prize to a living artist who has completed exemplary and innovative early work, the Calder Foundation seeks to further Calder’s legacy through the work of contemporary artists. The Foundation also provides in-depth, innovative educational resources to curators and art historians through grants, publications, symposia, and paid internships.