Alexander Calder
Explore our selection of Alexander Calder 1940’s jewelry and 1960’s works on paper. For over three decades, Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. has been a trusted buyer and seller of Alexander Calder standing mobiles, stabiles, works on paper, gouaches and jewelry, each unique.
ALEXANDER CALDER
Unlike Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Georges Braque, Man Ray, and Salvador Dalí, Calder refrained from creating multiple editions of his jewelry. He maintained complete control over each piece, insisting that every piece of Calder jewelry be handcrafted by him personally.
Calder frequently crafted his creations from a single strand of silver wire, using rivets to connect the pieces and never soldered joints. Calder once remarked: “I don’t want to ever compete head-on with a jeweler who's makes things out of precious materials because it’s a very different thing. They are doing that to enhance the beauty of the wearer, to make the stone look fabulous; this is about a statement, they’re really little sculptures…[that] make people think about jewelry in a different way.”
Calder’s jewelry has received renewed institutional attention in recent years. Most notably, the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s major 2026 retrospective, Calder. Rêver en équilibre, held from April 15 through August 16, 2026, brought together nearly 300 works spanning Calder’s career. The exhibition included a dedicated presentation of his jewelry, titled Wearable Sculpture. Alongside small bronzes, the jewelry section featured portable sculptures designed to follow the movement of the body, made from brass, copper, steel, gold, and silver wire, sometimes incorporating glass elements. The selection included brooches, necklaces, earrings, rings, and belt buckles, many of them created as sentimental talismans for loved ones, particularly Calder’s wife, Louisa. The presentation underscored Calder’s belief that his jewelry was not simply adornment, but an extension of his sculptural practice—small, intimate sculptures intended to be worn and brought to life through the movement of the body.
Our Calder jewelry selection has extensive exhibition and literature pedigree. The rare Calder Figa Brooch, circa 1948, was featured in the 1974 exhibition Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, Work from 1925–1974 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and reproduced in the exhibition catalogue. The brooch was sold by Calder’s long-time dealer, Klaus Perls, and was included in the Calder Jewelry exhibition at the Perls Galleries in 1966, before being acquired by Mr. & Mrs. James Aldorf.
The Alexander Calder Figa Brooch also has a notable provenance, having originally been sold by the Perls Gallery, New York—Alexander Calder’s long-time dealer—in 1972 and acquired by Mr. and Mrs. James Aldorf, providing it with an impeccable and important provenance.
Alexander Calder is best known for his pioneering kinetic sculptures—mobiles composed of abstract elements that move delicately through space. Born in 1898 near Philadelphia into a family of artists, Calder initially trained as an engineer, earning a degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919.
After enrolling at the Art Students League of New York in 1923, he studied under Thomas Hart Benton, George Luks, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan. During this period, he worked as an illustrator, notably sketching circus scenes that would inspire his celebrated Circus works.
In 1926, Calder moved to Paris, where he became an integral figure within the avant-garde community. By 1931, he joined Abstraction-Création and began producing his first abstract sculptures. His breakthrough came in 1932, when he introduced movement into sculpture. These works—later termed “mobiles” by Marcel Duchamp—redefined sculpture as a dynamic, ever-changing medium, while his stationary works became known as “stabiles.”
