Spotlight on the Collection
Artists in Depth: Arp, Miró, Calder
Presented by The Buffalo News
Friday, March 25, 2011–Sunday, April 15, 2012
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On View in the Clifton Hall Link
Spotlight on the Collection—Artists in Depth: Arp, Miró, Calder, presented by The Buffalo News, is the second installment in a new series of ongoing exhibitions drawn from the Albright-Knox’s Collection centering on important artists whose works the Gallery has acquired in depth. This series aims to reach beyond the Gallery’s celebrated masterworks to highlight a broad range of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from selected artists’ careers. Many of the works on view are less known to Albright-Knox audiences, not having been exhibited in some time; seen alongside the Gallery’s more well-known works, they will bring context and greater understanding to the chosen artists’ practices and their art-historical legacies.
Featuring a comprehensive array of works in all media by Jean (Hans) Arp (French, born Germany, 1886–1966), Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983), and Alexander Calder (American, 1898–1976), this exhibition will highlight the Gallery’s extensive collection of the work of these three modern masters, who pushed color, line, and form beyond convention. Arp, Miró, and Calder converged early in their artistic careers. Calder, who left New York for France in 1926, first encountered Arp and Miró in Paris, an inspirational destination for artists and a vibrant center of music and dance. Paris was also the creative center for Surrealism—an art movement stressing the subconscious significance of imagery—and Surrealist theory in the visual arts, politics, and society. Calder, though not closely associated with Surrealism, was undoubtedly influenced by the movement’s key players during his time in Paris. It was Arp, in fact, who named Calder’s static constructions “stabiles,” and, in 1931, the Surrealist Marcel Duchamp suggested Calder call his whimsical, kinetic works “mobiles.” But Calder developed the closest friendship with Miró; the two bonded over discussions about Surrealist theory, and through shared interests and influences. These relationships, formed during a period in art history often referred to as “the greatest laboratory of modern art,” resulted in some of the most innovative visual iconographies of the twentieth century.
Future exhibitions in this series will highlight various groupings, themes, and individual artists, all with the aim of examining the richness and depth of the Albright-Knox’s Collection through new perspectives.
This exhibition is organized by Curator for the Collection Holly E. Hughes.
The "Spotlight on the Collection" series is presented by 
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Admission to this exhibition is free on M&T FIRST FRIDAYS @ THE GALLERY.
Related EventS
Members' Preview and Reception
Thursday, March 24, 2011, 5–7 pm
Art’scool Educators’ Workshop
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 4–7 pm
Lunch Lecture: "Alexander Calder"
Friday, April 1, 2011, 11 am
Lunch Lecture: "Joan Miró"
Friday, June 3, 2011, 11 am
Related News
Albright-Knox show highlights synergy (The Buffalo News)
Related Lesson Plans
Wide Awake Dreaming (For Grades 3–5)
Featuring a work by Joan Miró
Alexander Calder’s Visual Poetry: Mobiles and Stabiles (For Grades K–12)
Featuring a work by Alexander Calder
Today
Inside AK: Moving a Masterwork
Watch the Albright-Knox Art Preparation team move Jean (Hans) Arp’s Sculpture classique (Classical Sculpture), 1964, into place for the exhibition. View Video
