Transparence: Calder Picabia

Calder Picabia is the first publication to explore the important aspect of transparency in the oeuvres of the two artists. Alexander Calder (1898–1976) and Francis Picabia (1879–1953) are both regarded as great innovators of 20th-century modernism. The volume creates a dialogue between selected works from the late 1920s to the post–World War II period. It casts light on the ensuing dialogue between Calder’s radically new creations―for instance, his works made of wire, the first to use transparency as a means of expression in sculpture―and Picabia’s abstracting contour pictures, his "transparencies" and paintings that make reference to these. Arnauld Pierre and George Baker, renowned experts on the work of both artists, examine the significance and impact of these correspondences in accompanying essays, while the works themselves are gorgeously reproduced in full bleeds.