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| Calder Foundation | |
|---|---|
| Name | Calder Foundation |
| Formation | 1987 |
| Founder | Alexander Calder |
| Type | Non-profit foundation |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Leader title | President |
| Leader name | Seymour H. Knox III |
Calder Foundation The Calder Foundation is a New York–based philanthropic organization established to preserve, study, and promote the work of the American sculptor Alexander Calder. It manages a comprehensive archive, authenticates works, organizes loans and exhibitions with museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, and the National Gallery of Art. The foundation collaborates with institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The foundation was formed in 1987 by members of the Calder family and supporters linked to collectors like Peggy Guggenheim and institutions such as the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Guggenheim Foundation. Early activities involved provenance research with partners including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery, London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fondation Beyeler, and the Fondation Maeght. Major loans and retrospectives were mounted in collaboration with curators from the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the National Gallery of Canada. The foundation engaged with collectors and dealers linked to figures like Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Paul Mellon, Joseph Hirshhorn, Andrew W. Mellon, and I. M. Pei in shaping donation and exhibition strategies.
The foundation’s mission emphasizes documentation, authentication, and dissemination of works by Alexander Calder, holding a catalogue raisonné and archives that include correspondence with artists and patrons such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, and Constantin Brâncuși. Its collections span mobiles, stabiles, paintings, drawings, and maquettes linked to exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée d’Orsay, the National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The foundation maintains records of loans to institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the National Portrait Gallery, the High Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Headquartered in Manhattan, the foundation operates conservation studios and storage facilities comparable to those used by the Getty Conservation Institute, the Frick Collection, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. Its facilities are outfitted to handle large-scale outdoor commissions like those sited at Parc de la Villette, Lincoln Center, La Défense, São Paulo Museum of Art, and Storm King Art Center. The foundation coordinates transport and installation with logistics teams linked to the Federal Highway Administration-style permitting for oversized works, municipal agencies like New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and international partners such as the Ministry of Culture (France).
Programming includes traveling retrospectives, thematic loans, and collaborations with exhibition organizers at the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. Past curated shows have appeared alongside collections from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Royal Academy of Arts. The foundation partners with biennials and triennials such as the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennial, the Documenta, and the Whitney Biennial to place Calder’s work within contemporary dialogues involving artists like Alexander Calder’s contemporaries and successors including Ellsworth Kelly, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Louise Bourgeois.
The foundation conducts conservation research in tandem with institutions such as the Getty Research Institute, the Conservation Center at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, the Rijksmuseum, and the V&A. It maintains technical dossiers and collaborates on scientific studies with laboratories affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, the Natural History Museum, London, the Musée du Louvre, and university centers like Harvard Art Museums and Yale University’s conservation programs. Authentication procedures reference archives and provenance resources used by the International Council of Museums, the Art Loss Register, and major auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips.
Governance is overseen by a board drawn from museum directors, collectors, conservators, and legal advisers connected to institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Foundation, and leading philanthropic families like the Rockefeller family and the Rothschild family. Funding sources include endowments, grants from foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Ford Foundation, corporate sponsorships, and income from loans and licensing agreements with cultural institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate. The foundation works with legal counsel versed in cultural property law referenced in cases before courts such as the United States Court of Appeals and international frameworks like the UNESCO conventions.
Educational outreach includes publications, catalogues raisonnés, and collaborations with academic programs at institutions like Columbia University, New York University, Yale University, Harvard University, Courtauld Institute of Art, and the University of Oxford. The foundation provides resources for curators and educators at museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate Modern, and supports internships and fellowships akin to programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Research Institute. It engages audiences through loans to public spaces such as Central Park, Battery Park, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, and commissions sited near landmarks like Grand Central Terminal and La Défense.
Category:Foundations in New York City