At the MCA, Alexander Calder makes us smile

Nathan Carter, TRAVELING LANGUAGE MACHINE WITH #3 FREQUENCY DISRUPTOR AND DISINFORMATION NUMBERS STATION, 2007. Courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, NY.

As I walked from a room full of Alexander Calder's mobiles and stabiles to one containing sculptures by seven other artists in the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition "Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy," I passed under an enormous tree trunk suspended from the ceiling and counterbalanced by a cluster of discarded wood ranging from furniture to scraps of flooring. This commissioned piece by Jason Middlebrook, From the Forest to the Mill to the Store to the Home to the Streets and Back Again, is the perfect introduction to the simultaneously casual and complicated nature of the MCA's new show, which I visited for a press preview last Friday.

Artist Nathan Carter spoke at the preview, describing one of his collaged wire sculptures (pictured) as a reflection of pirate radio stations. The artist asked himself, “What does sound look like?” and interpreted the chaos of communication through bending and twisting wires to make letters and numbers. The delicate construction of this piece reflects the intricacy and playfulness of Calder’s work.

Even field-tripping kiddies and Thomas Kinkade fans probably will appreciate the MCA's exhibition, but so will dedicated art enthusiasts. Calder's universal appeal shouldn't be confused with commercialism or childishness. His use of colors and movement, quirky abstractions of animals and whimsical interpretations of reality are deceptively simple: The complicated equations of balance that go into his 60 pieces bring them to an enthralling level of sophistication. Calder’s work is universally appealing because it does something that so much art is too complicated—or, dare I say, pretentious—to achieve: It makes you smile.