From Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building in New York to an open-air museum in Japan, the works of American sculptor Alexander Calder have been displayed in a number of remarkable locations across the globe. Now, the Swiss Alps can be added to that list, as Hauser & Wirth brings together six monumental sculptures from the 1960s and 70s for an outdoor exhibition in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Calder’s works have been erected throughout the well-heeled alpine town, popping up in public locations including Saanen's church and Lake Lauenen. His dynamic stabiles come to life against the backdrop of towering mountains and verdant forests. The unusually curvaceous Tripes (1974) writhes along the promenade while elsewhere, 3 flèches blanches (1965), the only mobile in the show, holds court at Le Grand Bellevue hotel.
The al fresco alpine romp harks back to Hauser & Wirth’s very first exhibition in 1992, which brought together Calder’s mobiles and gouaches with the sculptures and paintings of his lifelong friend Joan Miró. Gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth, in collaboration with the Calder Foundation, leaped at the chance to bring these works from the artist’s oeuvre to Switzerland for the first time.
Calder Foundation president Alexander SC Rower says, ‘My grandfather reset the traditional relationship between volume and void with his monumental sculptures. Installed against the mountainous backdrop of Gstaad, these works will surely surprise viewers as they harmonise in unpredictable ways with their surroundings.’ This summer celebration of Calder continues at the other end of Switzerland, where the Fondation Beyeler in Basel is hosting a joint exhibition of Calder and Fischli/Weiss works.
The exhibition comprises a standing mobile and five stabiles from the 1960s and 70s, which have been installed in various public locations. Pictured: installation view of Six Planes Escarpé, 1967, and Four Planes Escarpé, 1967, at Lake Lauenen
A Two-Faced Guy, 1969, has been erected by Saanen’s church
The uncharacteristically curvaceous Tripes, 1974, seemingly writhes along the town’s promenade
3 flèches blanches, 1965, the only mobile in the show, holds court at Le Grand Bellevue hotel
Calder Foundation president Alexander SC Rower says, ‘My grandfather reset the traditional relationship between volume and void with his monumental sculptures.’ Pictured: Untitled, 1976
He adds, ’Installed against the mountainous backdrop of Gstaad, these works will surely surprise viewers as they harmonise in unpredictable ways with their surroundings.’ Pictured: Six Planes Escarpé, 1967
INFORMATION
‘Calder in the Alps’ is on view until 30 September. For more information, visit the Hauser & Wirth website
Photography: Jon Etter. Images copyright 2016 Calder Foundation, New York / DACS London. Courtesy Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, New York and Hauser & Wirth
-
Curvilinear futurism meets subtropical beaches at Not A Hotel’s ZHA-designed Okinawa retreatZaha Hadid Architects has revealed the design for the first property in Not A Hotel’s futuristic new Vertex collection, coming soon to southern Japan
-
Gorden Wagener leaves the helm of Mercedes-Benz design after 28 years with the companyThe German designer is stepping down from the role of chief design officer at Mercedes-Benz. We look back at his influence and impact on the world of automotive and luxury design
-
These Christmas cards sent by 20th-century architects tell their own storiesHandcrafted holiday greetings reveal the personal side of architecture and design legends such as Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
-
Unseen works meet immersive showstoppers as Yayoi Kusama hits SwitzerlandAt the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, there are 300 works by Kusama to discover and it’s delightfully discombobulating
-
What to see at Switzerland’s art museums this autumn and winterWorld-class art, design and photography await at 11 Swiss museums. Take a video tour to peek inside, then plan your trip with our guide to the best exhibitions to see now and into 2026
-
Why are we so obsessed with ghosts? From the psychological to the gothic, a new exhibition finds outGhosts have terrified us for centuries. ‘Ghosts: Visualizing the Supernatural’ at Kunstmuseum Basel asks what is going on
-
Artists imbue the domestic with an unsettling unfamiliarity at Hauser & WirthThree artists – Koak, Ding Shilun and Cece Philips – bring an uncanny subversion to the domestic environment in Hauser & Wirth’s London exhibition
-
Rolf Sachs’ largest exhibition to date, ‘Be-rühren’, is a playful study of touchA collection of over 150 of Rolf Sachs’ works speaks to his preoccupation with transforming everyday objects to create art that is sensory – both emotionally and physically
-
Architect Erin Besler is reframing the American tradition of barn raisingAt Art Omi sculpture and architecture park, NY, Besler turns barn raising into an inclusive project that challenges conventional notions of architecture
-
Cindy Sherman in Menorca: ‘She's decades ahead of social media and the construction of identity for the camera’‘Cindy Sherman: The Women’, its title a nod to an image-conscious 1930s Broadway hit, takes the American artist's carefully constructed, highly performative works to Hauser & Wirth Menorca
-
What is recycling good for, asks Mika Rottenberg at Hauser & Wirth MenorcaUS-based artist Mika Rottenberg rethinks the possibilities of rubbish in a colourful exhibition, spanning films, drawings and eerily anthropomorphic lamps
