1981.120: The Yellow Ear

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1981.120

People

Alexander Calder, American (Philadelphia, PA 1898 - 1976 New York, NY)

Title

The Yellow Ear

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1946

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/309255

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Watercolor and brown and black ink on off-white wove paper

Dimensions

actual: 66.3 x 100 cm (26 1/8 x 39 3/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: black ink, l.r.: Calder Paris 1946
• gallery label: removed from verso? now in curatorial file, paper, black and blue inks, printed and handwritten: [printed in black ink:] Perls Galleries / 1016 Madison Ave., New York 21, N.Y. / No. [handwritten in blue:] 8430; [printed in black:] Artist: [handwritten in blue:] Calder / The Yellow Ear / (1946)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Perls Galleries, New York New York], sold; to Richard H. Solomon, New York, New York, 1961, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1981.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Richard H. Solomon

Copyright

© Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Accession Year

1981

Object Number

1981.120

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 308, p. 264, repr. in b/w
• Modern Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan, 1999), cat. no. 58, repr. (color)
• Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, ed., American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), repr. as pl. 54 on p. 123

Exhibition History

• Modern Art at Harvard, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 07/31/1999 - 09/26/1999; Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, 10/09/1999 - 11/14/1999; Matsuzakaya Art Museum, Nagoya, 12/02/1999 - 12/27/1999; Oita City Museum, Oita, 01/06/2000 - 02/06/2000; Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki, Ibaraki, 02/11/2000 - 03/26/2000
• American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/20/2023 - 08/13/2023

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