Alexander Calder Made His Own Toaster and Toilet-Paper Holder, and They’re Incredible.

Artnet: Javier Pes

Alexander Calder was a virtuoso of do-it-yourself decor and gadgetry. The extent of his ingenuity is currently being revealed in an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth‘s rural Somerset outpost, where a show tells the story of how the American sculptor and his wife transformed a rundown farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, into a whirring hub of creativity.

Calder created his first outdoor kinetic works in Roxbury after the couple moved back to the United States from a transformative sojourn to Paris in 1933. He also made an array of domestic items, including a toilet paper holder shaped like a hand, a milk frother, a dinner bell, ashtrays, chairs, a chess set, and even toasters. Each of these items is touched by the artist’s restless, often whimsical inventiveness, combining a minimal aesthetic with an evident relishing of wit. …Read More

Image: Toaster (around 1942), photograph courtesy of the Calder Foundation, New York artist copyright Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2018 2018. Photography credit: © 2018 Calder Foundation, New York.