Calder & Miro: Prints and Drawings 1967-1976

Kahan Gallery is pleased to announce Calder & Miró: Prints and Drawings, 1967-1976, the next exhibition at the 922 Madison Avenue gallery in New York.

The exhibition will present a focused group of prints and gouaches by Alexander Calder (1898-1976) and Joan Miró (1893-1983) from their later years, when they turned with renewed intensity to their practice on paper. These works reflect the spontaneous working methods, expansive horizons and elemental forms,often serially conceived, now considered emblematic of each artist’s late style.

In 1968, speaking to writer Paul Waldo Schwartz, Calder stated: “Miró is my favorite painter along with Matisse, yes and Klee…the archeologists will tell you there’s a little bit of Miró in Calder and a little bit of Calder in Miró.” After Calder’s passing, Miró wrote: “For a century, Sandy [Calder] was a great friend of mine. Sandy, my old Sandy, with an open heart, wide open…Catalonia and Spain have lost a great companion, and the world a courageous beacon that gave us new hopes.”

Recognized for their achievements in painting and sculpture, Calder and Miró continued working on paper into the 1960s and 1970s. This practice led to the design and conception of projects with collaborators in diverse mediums, reinforcing their lasting contributions to fine and decorative arts. Miró’s biographer Jacques Dupin identified this creative experimentation arising from the desire, “to go beyond painting.” As noted in 2004 by historian Catherine Craft, “the dissatisfaction with the limitations of their respective métiers took many other forms, few of which are actually considered,” outside of presentations centered on their institutionally celebrated works.

Calder & Miró will include primary market prints and gouaches that will be exhibited for the first time in nearly sixty years. Exploring allegory, metamorphoses, and prophecy, both artists created some of their most numinous works on paper during this period. The exhibition will present a complete set of Joan Miró’s six vertical format lithographs The Seers (1970), and select prints by Alexander Calder from the series The Elementary Memory (1976). Large-scale etchings and aquatints by Miró set in nocturnal atmospheres such as The Sleep-Walker (1974) will be shown with Calder’s nebulous and marine-like gouache Sea-star (1969). Over twenty prints, gouaches, illustrated books and tapestry will be on view. Etched, inked, and stained, the works reveal the artists’ shared sources of inspiration and convergent methods, approaching newconcepts with spirited invention.

 

Calder & Miró is on view at 922 Madison Avenue from October 9, 2025 through January 24, 2026. Theexhibition is located on the second floor and is accessible by stairs.