An Evening with Calder's Circus:

Schedule:
5:30pm: Cash bar
6:00pm: Screening of 2 short films:
              The Great Sail +
              Le grand Cirque Calder 1927
7:00pm: Reception with cash bar, circus snacks and an interactive juggling demonstration!
 

Film program and reception are free and open to the public.

To buy Calder exhibition tickets for viewing before or after the film program, visit tickets.duke.edu or purchase on site.

The Great Sail
(Robert Gardner, 1966, 10 min, USA, B&W, DVD)

Alexander Calder’s La Grande Voile was erected on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in 1966 with the artist directing the work. As the spectacular steel forms of this monumental stabile rise, it is filmed with time lapse and verite photography. One can see that the structure owes its spare elegance to the precision of its design and construction. Calder remains absorbed in quiet concentration as skeptical students and bemused bystanders observe the somewhat improbable event.

Le grand Cirque Calder 1927
(Jean Painlevé, 1955, 44 min, France, Color, DVD) 

Documents Alexander Calder (1898-1976) as he performs his miniature circus (Cirque Calder) made from wire, string, rubber, and other materials, for a live audience. Calder lived in Paris between 1926 and 1933. During these years the young artist created and performed one of the most important and beloved works, the miniature circus. More than twenty years later Jean Painleve made the documentary film Le Grande Cirque Calder 1927, in which, Calder playfully manipulates his miniatures in front of a small audience of friends: pulling strings, activating levers, turning cranks and releasing springs. A horse trots around the ring as a trick rider catapults onto its back. Trapeze artists latch arms, fly through the air and then drop into a net. A lion roars before taking its handler's head in its mouth; a dancer, naked but for some strategically placed fringe, seductively undulates. In the closing act two chariots and four fleet stallions set off on a sweaty race.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public!

Sponsors: The Nasher Museum of Art and the Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI)