Stars and Stripes 1976 HS

Year1976

Hand SignedLower Right 

Condition Excellent 

Framed with GlassBlack Frame w/ White Mat 

Purchased fromAuction House 2022 

Story / Additional InfoLithograph comes with original promotional materials. As a soaring salute to the Nation on its 200th Birthday, Alexander Calder, creator of the mobile, the stabile and the standing mobile - and thus the father of kinetic art, was commissioned by Braniff to create a work of art using as his canvas the flagship of the Braniff jet fleet in the United States. Christened "The Flying Colors of the United States," Calder's salute is an abstract painting of the red, white and blue of our Nation's flag as it waves. Calder hand-painted a design representing the stars and stripes of the Nation's flag on the cover of the right-side engine. Braniff International reproduced this design "Flying Colors '76" in a limited edition lithograph for presentation by leading travel agencies. 

Certificate of AuthenticityArt Brokerage 

LID158055

Alexander Calder - United States

Alexander Calder was an American Blue Chip artist best known for his mobiles and wire sculptures. His biomorphic forms recall the Surrealism of Joan Miró, with curved lines, geometric shapes, and soft angles. "My whole theory about art is the disparity that exists between form, masses, and movement," the artist once said. Born on August 22, 1898 in Lawnton, PA, Calder received a degree in mechanical engineering before turning to art in the 1920s, studying painting under George Luks and Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League in New York. Calder moved to Paris to continue his studies in 1926, where he was introduced to the European avant-garde through Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, and Fernand Léger. That same year, Calder embarked on arguably his most beloved piece, Cirque Calder (1931), a mechanized miniature circus that is performed before an audience. "I was very fond of the spatial relations," he said of his interest in the circus. "The whole thing of—the vast space—I've always loved it." Notably, it was his friend Duchamp that coined the term mobiles as a suggestion for an exhibition of Calder's work in 1932. During the following decades, along with his mobiles he also produced paintings and non-kinetic works. The artist lived in both Roxbury, CT, and France before his death on November 11, 1976 in New York, NY. Today, his works are held in the collections The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate Gallery in London. Listings wanted.