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This free-standing sculpture is made up of a sweeping, backward-facing C shape supporting a series of ten curving, interlocking, thin wires that cascade down and to our left in this photograph, each one ending in a flat, leaf-like paddle on either end. The C-shaped arm forks into three feet, on which the sculpture sits so the other branches float freely. The S-shaped arms are linked by tiny rings at the center of each arm, and they descend in size as they arc down and to our left. Each S-shaped arm has a black, roughly triangular paddle at the top; the third paddle from our right has a hole in it. The paddles at the bottom of each arm are each a different color, with ruby red to our right, then marigold orange, pine green, honey yellow, and the final four to our left are white. The size of the paddles also descend in size from our right to left. The branch connecting the S-shaped branches to the C-shaped base is curvier, and has one black paddle, the largest of all, at the bottom point.

Alexander Calder

Little Spider, c. 1940

East Building, Tower Level — Gallery 606

Medium

sheet metal, wire, and paint

Dimensions

overall: 111.1 x 127 x 139.7 cm (43 3/4 x 50 x 55 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls

Accession Number

1996.120.18

Artists / Makers

Alexander Calder (sculptor) American, 1898 - 1976

Image Use

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Copyright

Inscription

on largest element in monogram: CA

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York; gift 1996 to NGA.

Associated Names

Perls, Klaus

Exhibition History

1997: Alexander Calder: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1997, no. 9, color repro.

1998: Alexander Calder: 1898-1976, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1998, no. 146, color repro.

2004: Calder, Miró, Fondation Beyeler, Basel; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, no. 43, repro.

2009: Calder: Sculptor of Air, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 2009-2010, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2013: Alexander Calder - Avant-Garde in Motion, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 2013-2014, no. 43, repro.

2018: Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2018-2019.