Sale: 458 / Post War II, Dec. 08. 2017 in Munich Lot 456

 

456
Alexander Calder
Ohne Titel, 1968.
India ink drawing
Estimate:
€ 7,000 / $ 7,560
Sold:
€ 8,750 / $ 9,450

(incl. surcharge)
Ohne Titel. 1968.
India ink drawing.
Lower right monogrammed. On letter paper from Perls Galleries New York (verso with typographic print). 28 x 21.8 cm (11 x 8.5 in) , size of sheet. [JS].

The drawing is registered with the number "A 26582" at the archive of the Calder Foundation, New York.

PROVENANCE: Perls Galleries, New York (Klaus Perls' gallery was the exclusive representative of Calder's in the USA works since 1954).
Private collection.

It is not only the brisk look and the head's frontal perspective, but also the massive necklace and the large blossoms and most of all the lady's eccentrically represented eyebrows that seem to fire flashes of lightning far beyond the head's contours, which suggest that this might be a portrait of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo or a similar exotic beauty. The characteristic features are rendered in a naive line, however, with great accuracy. Alexander Calder could have made first contact with the painter in the late 1930s, possibly in context of Frida Kahlo's first solo show at Julien Levy's gallery in New York in November 1938 or during her sojourn in Paris in 1939.



456
Alexander Calder
Ohne Titel, 1968.
India ink drawing
Estimate:
€ 7,000 / $ 7,560
Sold:
€ 8,750 / $ 9,450

(incl. surcharge)