TOYS FOR ADULTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20929, 7 January 1938, Page 10

TOYS FOR ADULTS

MECHANICAL ART FORMS LONDON. December 18. It may amuse one to play for a few minutes with a collection of odd-sized vari-coloured balls that swing, dangle and gyrate on the ends of spring-wires, but the question is whether one will pay 50 guineas for the honour of possessing this work of art. Prices up to 200 guineas are asked for similar gadgets at an exhibition of “abstractions which move and objects to please” at the Mayor Gallery. The exhibitor is the American artistmechanician, Mr Alexander Calder, who created the Mercury Fountain in the Spanish pavilion at the Paris Exhibition, and his work is enjoying a great vogue in America. Unilke surrealist objects, Mr Calder’s creations have no pretentions, and arc not named, except for a broad distinction between “mobile” and “stabile” objects. Mr Kenneth Clark, Director of the National Gallery, has shown his appreciation of this unusual art by purchasing a sort of three-story pagoda, which tremulously and perilously wobbles and swings.