White Path (gouache)

A unique work, not a print

White Path is a one-of-a-kind painting on paper: gouache and ink on a large horizontal sheet, 29 1/2 by 43 inches. Calder signed and dated it 'Calder 72' at the lower right. That makes it a very different object from his lithographs, which were printed in editions; a gouache like this exists once.

Calder turned to gouache throughout his career, and with particular energy in his later years. The medium let him work faster and more freely than he could in metal. One curator described the gouaches as 'a much quicker, freer method of creation,' and Calder himself said, 'I paint with shapes.'

His first concentrated series of gouaches dates from a 1953 stay in Aix-en-Provence. By the 1970s they were a regular part of his exhibitions: in the fall of 1970 and again in 1971 his New York dealer showed recent gouaches alongside his mobiles.

Alexander Calder at 74

Calder was born on July 22, 1898, in the Lawnton section of Philadelphia, into a family of artists: his father was a sculptor and his mother a painter. He trained as a mechanical engineer at the Stevens Institute of Technology, then turned to art, moving to Paris in 1926. There he met Joan Miró, a lifelong friend, and in 1930 visited Piet Mondrian's studio, an encounter that pushed him toward abstraction. Marcel Duchamp named his moving sculptures 'mobiles' in 1931.

By 1972 Calder had kept a workshop in Saché, France, for nearly a decade, and crossed the Atlantic regularly for shows and commissions. His gouaches drew on the same vocabulary as his sculpture: spirals, suns and moons, orbs and stars, in black, white and bright primary colors. 'Black and white are first,' he said, 'then red is next.'

Calder in 1972

In April 1972 Calder was in New York for the opening of 'Calder's Circus' at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a show of the miniature wire circus he had first built and performed in Paris in the 1920s. In October and November his New York gallery showed his oil paintings.

Calder was also political. On May 31, 1972, he placed an advertisement in The New York Times calling for the impeachment of President Nixon. Two weeks later, on June 17, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex. Nixon was reelected in a landslide that November.

The next year brought one of Calder's most public projects: in October 1973 he hand-painted the engine cowlings of Flying Colors, a jet airliner covered in his designs, and joined its inaugural flight.

From the estate to a Philadelphia collection

White Path was still in Calder's possession when he died in New York on November 11, 1976. From his estate it went to a New York gallery, and in 1977 a Philadelphia gallery acquired it from there. It then entered a private collection in Philadelphia, the city of Calder's birth, where it stayed until it was consigned for sale.

On March 13, 2024, White Path was offered at a post-war and contemporary art auction in the United States with an estimate of $70,000 to $90,000. It sold for $151,200 with fees, close to twice its low estimate.

The work is registered in the archives of the Calder Foundation in New York, under application number A07250. The foundation was established in 1987 to preserve and exhibit Calder's work.

How to judge a Calder gouache

Calder gouaches share a recognizable look: flat areas of opaque color, bold black ink lines, and floating forms like discs, spirals, suns, moons and stars. Look for a signature with a two-digit date, as on White Path's 'Calder 72', and for a Calder Foundation archive or application number.

Provenance counts too. White Path's line runs straight back to the artist's estate, through two galleries, to a single private owner.

The numbers

Medium

Gouache and ink on paper

Dimensions

29 1/2 x 43 in (75 x 109 cm)

Edition

Unique

Archive

Calder Foundation application number A07250

Collection

Private

Timeline

1. Jul 22, 1898

   Alexander Calder is born in Philadelphia.

2. Jul 1926

   Calder moves to Paris.

3. 1931

   Marcel Duchamp names Calder's kinetic sculptures 'mobiles'.

4. 1953

   Calder makes his first concentrated series of gouaches, in Aix-en-Provence.

5. 1963

   Calder sets up a workshop in Saché, France.

6. Oct 20, 1970

   A New York gallery opens 'Recent Gouaches–Early Mobiles'.

7. Apr 1972

   Calder attends the opening of 'Calder's Circus' at the Whitney Museum.

8. 1972

   Calder paints White Path and signs it 'Calder 72'.

9. May 31, 1972

   Calder's ad calling for Nixon's impeachment runs in The New York Times.

10. Oct 1973

    Calder hand-paints the engines of the jet Flying Colors and joins its first flight.

11. Nov 11, 1976

    Calder dies in New York City; White Path is part of his estate.

12. 1977

    A Philadelphia gallery acquires White Path from a New York gallery.

13. 1987

    The Calder Foundation is established.

14. Mar 13, 2024

    White Path sells at auction for $151,200 with fees, against a $70,000 to $90,000 estimate.

The world in 1972

• Feb 21, 1972

  Richard Nixon begins an eight-day visit to the People's Republic of China.

• Mar 15, 1972

  The Godfather premieres in New York.

• Jun 17, 1972

  Five men are arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate.

• Jun 23, 1972

  Nixon signs Title IX into law.

• Nov 7, 1972

  Nixon defeats George McGovern in a landslide.

• Dec 14, 1972

  Eugene Cernan becomes the last person to walk on the Moon, on Apollo 17.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, White Path (gouache) is number 39 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (76 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• White Path was still in Calder's own estate when he died, and left it the year after.
• It spent decades in Philadelphia, the city where Calder was born.
• In 1972, the year he painted it, Calder bought newspaper space to call for President Nixon's impeachment.
• Calder once said he loved red so much he almost wanted to paint everything red.
• It sold for $151,200, about 1.7 times the top of its estimate.