$37,500
Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000
Auction: May 8, 2019 1:00:00 PM EDT
Signed with artist's monogram and dated 75 bottom right, gouache and ink on paper.
43 x 14 5/8 in. (109.2 x 37.2cm)
Provenance: Commissioned from the Artist, Centre Square, Inc., Philadelphia, 1975.
Private Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (acquired in 1975).
Private Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (acquired directly from the above circa 1976).
note:
This work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation under identification number A19108.
In 1975, Philadelphia developer Jack Wolgin commissioned Alexander Calder to design eight banners to hang in the atrium of his Centre Square downtown Philadelphia complex. The project would fulfill the Redevelopment Authority’s percent-for art program requirement. The artist submitted proposed designs to Mr. Wolgin in the form of gouache works on paper, one of which is offered here. The magnificent final products, brilliantly hued banners of dyed cotton and silk, ranged from 18 to 28 feet in height and were unveiled at a gala event on July 1st, 1976, timed to coincide with the city’s bicentennial celebration.
Suspended from the sky-lit atrium around a large sculpture by Jean Dubuffet, with the newly installed 40-foot ‘Clothespin’ by Claes Oldenburg just outside, the Calder commissions made a stunning impact and instantly marked Philadelphia as a new standard bearer for public art. Mary Kilroy, former head of the Redevelopment Authority art program, said the 1976 installation of those artworks marked a cultural ‘breakout’ for the city.
Centre Square changed ownership a few times in the 1980’s. The atrium was redesigned, the banners removed, placed in storage, and subsequently were lost for a period of years. Thanks to the efforts of Susan Davis, former director of public art at the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and many others, however, the banners were found in 2009 and hung at the Philadelphia Free Library for public viewing for the first time in over 20 years.
Freeman’s is delighted to offer for sale our second such preparatory work from this commission. The first was sold in 2011, from the estate of Jack Wolgin.