Jonah and the Whale

ca. 1940
Alexander Calder, 1898-1976

Sheet metal, rod, wire, and paint, 34 3/4 × 17 × 12 3/8 in., Promised gift of Jon and Mary Shirley, photo: Nicholas Shirley, Brightwood Photos.

Created a decade after Calder’s shift to abstraction, Jonah and the Whale contemplates the construction of space while testing the boundaries of the figurative versus the abstract. Two figures—one human-like, one appearing like a fish or whale—hang suspended within a larger encapsulating form. The figures rotate and turn at the whims of unseen energies, sometimes moving while the larger shape appears to remain at rest. However, their path is predetermined by the space that confines them. The juxtaposition between these shapes creates a stage where the figures within convey meaning through motion despite these barriers. The human figure provides us a proxy to consider questions about space and motion as they relate to our own physical condition. How does the person inside experience these forces? What does it mean for an object or being to be static in a universe that is constantly in motion? Is it possible for them to truly be at rest?