Original 1976 Lithograph "Rayons Noirs" by Alexander Calder.  Printed by ARTE in Paris.  Presented in a 1 1/8 inch wide handmade matte black wood frame, white conservation mat, and conservation clear acrylic glazing.  Mat opening size: 15  x 22 inches; overall size with frame: 28 x 21 inches.  As with all of our framed art, the frame and framing materials are new.  The print is in mint condition (barely visible center fold as issued), having never been displayed, and since framing is stored in a controlled environment away from light. 
 
Alexander Calder was a sculptor, renowned for his stabiles and mobiles he began creating in the 1930s. Calder’s vision was broad and groundbreaking, and his output was enormous, ranging from small figurines to large, architecturally related sculptures.  He was born in Philadelphia in 1898, the son of an academic sculptor.  Although trained as a mechanical engineer, he turned to art, and attended the Art Students League in New York City, where  he established himself as an illustrator and caricaturist.  While in Paris in 1926, he took up sculpture.  After working on wood pieces, he began to make circus figures composed of twisted wire, wheels, string, and cloth.  His miniature circus captured the attention of the avant-garde in Paris.  Inspited by the work of Joan Miró, Jean Arp, Fernand Léger, and Piet Mondrian, he created his first abstract stabiles in 1930.  From these early works and his interest in movement, Calder developed handcranked, motorized, and then wind-powered constructions that were dubbed ​“mobiles” by the French artist Marcel Duchamp.  These sculptures, usually painted in bold basic colors, turn, bob, and rotate, in a constantly changing relationship to the space around them.  Many of his sculptures were transformed into lithographs that remain quite popular.