Alexander Calder - rare signed poster for the June 1960 M. Knoedler & Co. exhibition (Hand Signed by Calder)

Alexander Calder - rare signed poster for the June 1960 M. Knoedler & Co. exhibition (Hand Signed by Calder)

Offset lithograph poster (Hand Signed by Alexander Calder)

Scarce early exhibition poster designed by Alexander Calder, published by M. Knoedler & Co for a landmark survey of American art - a benefit exhibition of American art at the turn of the decade of the 1960s, held during the tenure of Roland Balay, the last member of the Knoedler family to direct the gallery, prior to its 1971 acquisition by Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum. The title of the exhibition was "American Art: 1910-1960" and it featured master works from the collection of philanthropist Roy R. Neuberger, one of the great patrons of American modern art. This was a museum quality survey of American modernism, drawn from one of the finest private collections in the country, mounted at Knoedler to benefit the 50th Anniversary Fund of the American Federation of Arts. The exhibition ran from June 8 through September 9, 1960. (Unlike many collectors of his generation who focused on European Impressionism, Neuberger championed living American artists. His collection ultimately became the foundation of the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College.) The exhibition catalogue for the present show reads almost like a Who's Who of American modernism. Among the artists represented were:
Alexander Calder, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Lyonel Feininger, Milton Avery, Philip Guston, Richard Diebenkorn, Grace Hartigan, Mark Tobey, Hans Hofmann, Hyman Gloom, Jacques Lipchitz, Herbert Ferber, Karl Knaths, Charles Demuth, Lee Gatch, Bernard Karfiol, Gabor Peterdi, David Smith, Jose de Creeft and others.

The poster itself is scarce, but when hand signed by Calder as is the present work, it is a true collectors' item.