The Only Magazine for Children's Art
Oct 26, 2026
A whole other way of seeing the work of two modern art legends
Both revolutionary artists in their own way, Alexander Calder and Georgia O'Keefe shared a longtime friendship and mutual admiration, even if it was not necessarily immediately evident in their work itself. The latter, of course, did so much to shift modern art away from its predominantly masculine viewpoint; the former sought to free up space and motion from the "laws" that physics had so inconveniently forced each to be subjected to.
Yet it's possible to find clues of a genuine kinship of their artistic missions in notable quotes by each: “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way...things I had no words for," O'Keefe edifyingly revealed; similarly, Calder observed, "When everything goes well, a mobile is a piece of poetry that dances with the joy of living and surprise. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions."
And so both were seeking to convey something of the ineffable or unimiginable, through images and constructions that were otherwise quite accessible and even playful- as this remarkably well considered new exhibit simply titled 'Calder | O'Keefe' bears witness to. It is the inaugural show at Hauser & Wirth's strikingly handsome new gallery in Palo Alto, CA - and thusly will remain on view through January 2027, to make a proper extended event of it.
But hardly just some fond look back at merely another storied buddy-buddy artist&artist relationship, the curation here, much like that of the recent 'Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen' exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, points to fascinating affinities between specific works by the pair. O'Keefe's 'Black Spot, No. 2' (1919), for instance, reminds of how profoundly she was able recontextualize the sensual curves found in nature; displayed strategically nearby in the gallery is Calder's 'Thin Black Stabile' (from 1941), which represents one of the finest examples of his deftness at utilizing the air itself around one of his singular sculpts as a defining element - much the same as any artist applying paint or molding clay. (See both works in the first panel of the Instagram post below.)
Though to truly understand how deep the connection went, consider how O'Keefe famously remarked that she could recognize her own "pelvis bone holes" in the space within Calder's works - so no surprise her mesmerizing 1943 'Pelvis with the Moon - New Mexico' is included in the exhibit. And despite the latter's significant European dalliances, both felt a deep and thoroughly captivated connection to the essence of rural America - which monumentally influenced the work of each throughout their lives.
As legendary stories about legendary artistic friendships tend to go, O'Keefe happened to attend a dinner in Calder's honor at the Whitney Museum of American Art in October of 1976...just weeks before the latter's passing on November 11 at the age of 78. It would seem almost as if they had planned out a dramatic "goodbye" at the very cultural institution that still continues to most enthusiastically honor their legacies. She was nearly ten years his senior, but would outlive him also by nearly a decade, bidding her farewell to this mortal life in March of 1986.
What this remarkable Hauser & Wirth exhibition does is allow us to see their work in a uniquely new way, by presenting such genuinely thought-provoking juxtapositions. One imagines both Calder and O'Keefe would have been thrilled with the result.
