Alexander Calder

[Roderick Treece]

This short movie is well worth watching.

http://www.ubu.com/film/calder.html

[bob gamache]

Rod thanks for sharing.......your a man of true taste!

Truely amazing. Calder was a real heavy. He was part of the 'american modernist' movement from 1910 to 1935. There were 2 circles of artists, the arnsberg circle(spelling?) out of Philadelphia, and the Stieglitz circle(spelling?) out of NYC. Stieglitz was a great photographer and was also married to Georgia O'Keefe. Calder was actually a member of both circles.

For five years I had the honor of being surrounded daily by this art collection via Harvey and Francoise Rambach who owned and displayed approx. 90% of the paintings, mobiles and sculptures from the Stieglitz circle in their home. Calders included. They resided in Locust NJ and Wellington Florida.

Talk about a pricey collection----22.5mil !!! O'keefe, Bloomner, Marin, Calder, Stella just to name a few. Awesome, ground braking material for that time period! A totally beyond inspiring art education for me!

The Rambach's dispersed the collection about 2 years ago.

[Roderick Treece]

That must have been something to see !!
It's been years scence I've watched that movie and it's still very cool to see. Just a big kid at heart.

[bob gamache]

Yea man, talk about a rush!

All those artists were in a different world. Like all of us true artists!!! They all were encouraged big time by Arnsberg and Stieglits to paint full time and develop thier art to thier full potental. They did nothing else. They were championed financially by Arnsberg and Stieglits who sold thier art. They did'nt have to worry about the almighty $. They all used to hang out up in Lake George NY in the mountains and live art.

I remember the first time I met the Rambach's. I was asked to make them a really super small sign for their barn (I was going to throw it to them because it was so small.)

As I was walking up the driveway to thier mansion to deliver the sign I decided that I was going to 'get' my lousy $20 for the sign. I introduced myself, they invited me in and they went upstairs to write my $20 check.
As I was waiting, I noticed there were paintings all over the place! 100's of them. When they returned with my check I mentioned that I had never seen a copy of an O'keefe flower painting of that caliber. They corrected me by informing me that it was the original!!!!! That was the start of a long and inspiring artistic relationship. I've done a lot of really wild artistic projects over the years for them. Francoise's husband Harvey passed away last year. All projects ceased at that time. I was 'thier artist' for many years.