This work is registered in the Calder Foundation archives under the reference A08361.

Calder’s interest in the circus began as early as 1924 when he received permission from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the most famous American circus of the time (and perhaps still today) to spend a fortnight following, observing, studying and sketching its acrobats, jugglers, clowns, lion tamers and Master of Ceremonies. It was a decisive experience which inspired his first masterpiece The Circus, 1926-1931 (The Whitney Museum of Art, New York). Originally created for his intimate friends and family, Calder began work on The Circus upon his arrival in Paris and continued to modify it throughout his life, continually creating new elements and scenes. The circle of artist friends familiar with these happenings grew, as did their fame, eventually drawing the interest of the larger public, including art critics. In 1961, it was filmed by Carlos Vilardebó and is now considered to be one of the first examples of performing art.

In the performances, the laws of gravity are challenged by the simple balancing exercises and acrobatics of his wire toy-like creations. These examples are some of the first to show how Calder played with the idea of tension between balance and imbalance, prefiguring his iconic mobiles by some ten years. In The Circus, the artist assumes the role of master of ceremonies, narrator and puppeteer by manually operating the figures and mechanisms, while being accompanied by music and sound effects. It is an artistic performance of pure wit, whimsy and glee.

The Handstand with a Girl is part of the series of drawings made between 1928 and 1932, each of which is a fragment or snapshot of a circus scene. Our drawing is the epitome of Calder‘s poetic universe of that time in which the gravity defying elements of the acrobats are reflected in his wire-like lines. The assured line produces a deliberate full-frontal effect presaging the volumetric approach which would so shake up the artist’s future aesthetic developments. With the figure on the left, Calder also expresses his humor: he sketches a purposely child-like drawing to emphasise the wonder and awe of the show. This interest in the performer, the showman, the dancer, the person who lives outside the norms of respectable society, recalls his famous predecessors: Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Picasso... who all before him, became seduced by the spectacle under The Big Top.

Similar works by Calder can be found in The Whitney Museum, New York; The Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Calder Foundation, New York and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.