Iron Frame / Charpente de fer, 1969

Original lithograph printed in black ink on wove paper. Proof impression apart from the numbered edition of 75, annotated in pencil lower left. Published by Maeght éditeur, Paris; printed at Arte Adrien Maeght, Paris. Image size: 54.6 x 75.6 cm (21 1/2 x 29 3/4 in)// Iron Frame (Charpente de fer) is a bold black lithograph that translates the structural vocabulary of Alexander Calder's celebrated mobiles and stabiles into the graphic medium. Bold black biomorphic forms — leaf-like, boomerang-shaped, and curvilinear — are intersected by straight diagonal lines that suggest the armature of an iron framework, the tension between organic shape and industrial structure creating a dynamic equilibrium on the page. Printed in black ink on wove paper as a proof apart from the numbered edition of seventy-five, the work demonstrates Calder's singular ability to infuse two-dimensional composition with the same sense of movement and balance that animates his sculpture. Signed in pencil by the artist, this is a powerful graphic statement from one of the twentieth century's most original creative minds.