In 1937 Calder returned to Paris, where he set up a studio in a garage outfitted with an automotive turntable, likely to facilitate the viewing and adjusting of his sculptures. That same year, he was commissioned to create Mercury Fountain for the Spanish Pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris. The work included mercury mined in Almadén, Spain, a material that symbolized Republican resistance during the Spanish Civil War. It was shown alongside Picasso’s Guernica and Miró’s The Reaper, reflecting the political engagement of these artists.
Back in New York in 1938, Calder began construction of a large studio on the foundations of an old dairy barn in Roxbury and shortly afterward converted the adjoining icehouse studio into a living space known as the “Big Room.” That same year, his first retrospective, “Calder Mobiles,” was presented at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. The show included 61 pieces of jewelry, and among the guests at the opening were designer Alvar Aalto and painter Fernand Léger. A year later, Calder was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York to create Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, a mobile installed in the principal stairwell of the museum’s new building on West 53rd Street.
Between the late 1930s and the early 1940s, Calder’s works were showcased at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. The exhibitions included large-scale bolted stabiles, kinetic sculptures, and delicate pieces of jewelry—highlighting the breadth of his investigation of movement, balance, and material. In 1943, the gallery presented his first “Constellations,” a series of painted wood assemblages that marked yet another turning point in his career. Developed during the constraints of the Second World War, when access to metal was limited, the “Constellations” consisted of geometric and organic elements arranged in intricate networks, suspended, mounted, or placed on surfaces to create miniature universes. Each component’s position was essential to the piece’s rhythm and dynamic effect; improper placement diminished its visual impact. With these works Calder articulated a personal, almost cosmic vision, transforming his sculptural elements into an experience that engaged viewers both emotionally and spatially, bridging the tangible and the conceptual.
