Tuning Calder’s Clouds / Sintonías de las nubes de Calder

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) is one of the best known and most influential artists of the 20th century. His sculpture continues to be a critical reference within international histories of modernism. Less known is the importance of sound and architecture in his work, as well as the extent to which he was influenced by ideas of performance and theatricality. Tuning Calder’s Clouds examines this critical legacy of the artist through an in-depth study of his monumental Acoustic Ceiling (1954) in the Aula Magan of the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas The multi-coloured panels that appear to float across the ceiling of the concert hall emerged through Calder’s close collaboration with the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva as well as engineers and local fabricators. Together, they created a singular artwork that not only shifted Calder’s own process of artmaking but has continued to resonate across successive generations in Latin America and beyond.