Alexander Calder with sculpture from the Peter A. Juley & Son photo collection
Have you noticed any of the spiders in Alexis Rockman’s paintings on view at American Art? The creepy-crawly, sometimes long-legged, sometimes furry, sometimes poisonous insects often cause people to jump on chairs and scream like children. But before you step on a spider or squish it in a paper towel, consider this: today, March 14, is Save a Spider Day.
I admit to being one of those who cringe at the sight of a spider. However there is one I have great fondness for (in addition to Charlotte, of course). Hanging in our Research and Scholars Center office is my favorite photograph by Peter A. Juley & Son. It is a portrait of Alexander Calder standing next to one of his hanging spider sculptures (location unknown). At this time, nothing more is known about the photograph, other than that it was taken around 1929.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is known for his abstract mobiles and stabiles and twisted wire sculptures. According to the Inventory of American Sculpture, some of his spider sculptures can be found in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, and in private collections.
Spiders are not strangers to art. From seventeenth-century Dutch trompe l’oeil paintings, to eighteenth-century French still-lifes, to nineteenth-century illustrations of the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffett, spiders have creeped their way through the history of art. These days, you can encounter huge Calder and Louise Bourgeois arachnids on sidewalks or in plazas just about anywhere. And if you haven't gotten your fill by now, come on over to see our more interesting creatures crawling all over American Art in the Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow, on view until May 8.
