Introducing audiences to MoMA’s deep relationship with Alexander Calder.
Alexander Calder: Modern from the Start

Art direction, exhibition design

Client: The Museum of Modern Art

2021

Calder’s ever-changing artworks invite a viewer’s sustained attention, and The Museum of Modern Art has provided a setting for this productive exchange ever since his work was first exhibited here in 1930, just months after the Museum opened its doors. This exhibition looks at Calder’s work through the lens of MoMA’s formative years where Calder, in his unofficial role as “house artist,” was called upon to produce several commissioned works—including Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, a multicolored mobile that hangs in the same stairwell for which it was made in 1939. His works have been a mainstay of the Museum’s galleries and Sculpture Garden ever since. 

For the exhibition identity, we designed a title wall that showcased Calder’s signature palette, a 1950 film by Herbert Matter, and a largescale blow up of a notebook.

Organized by Cara Manes; Creative Direction: Elle Kim; Art Direction and Design: Damien Saatdjian; Design: David Klein; Video design and production: Sean Yetter, Kevin Ballon, and David Klein; Production: Claire Corey, Tom Black; Typeface: Neue Haas Grotesk, MoMA Sans