Alexander Calder, Stars And Stripes, Braniff International Airways Flying Colors Collection,

Condition: Pre-Owned
Lithograph on vlin paper. Paper Size: 12.5 x 15.25 inches. Excellent condition. Inscription: Signed and dated in the plate, embossed with the official Braniff Flying Colors Collection seal, and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the [Braniff International Airways] Flying Colors Collection, 1976. Published by Braniff International Airways, Dallas; printed by Mourlot Frres, Paris, in an edition of MMM. Excerpted from an article about the collection, In 1972, Dallas based Braniff International Airways commissioned Alexander Calder to paint a full-size Douglas DC-8-62 airliner as a flying canvas. Models of the aircraft were sent to Calder at his studio in France in November of 1972, and work commenced. Braniff announced the Calder collaboration to the public on June 4, 1973. This was to be the first time that an artist had ever painted a jetliner used in regular airline service. Painting began at the carriers Dallas Love Field Operations and Maintenance Base. Calder supervised the painting of the aircraft at the Braniff Base, and personally painted the two left side engine nacelles with two of his designs called Beastie and Sunburst. While at the hangar Calder befriended many of the Braniff Maintenance and Engineering personnel and even painted his unique designs on their lunch pails and toolboxes. At the time, some of the employees did not like the designs but quickly changed their mind once they realized they became owners of their own Calder masterpieces. This lithograph is one from a set of six comprising The Flying Colors Collection commemorating this historic project which created a piece of artwork that was seen by more people than have looked at any other single work of art in the 20th century.

ALEXANDER CALDER (1898-1976) Credited with the invention of the mobile, Alexander Calder revolutionized twentieth-century art with his innovative use of subtle air currents to animate sculpture. Calder was prolific and worked throughout his career in many art forms. An accomplished painter of gouaches and sculptor in a variety of media, Calder is best known for poetic arrangements of boldly colored, irregularly shaped geometric forms that convey a sense of harmony and balance. He also designed jewelry, tapestry, theater settings and architectural interiors. From the 1940s on, Calder's works, many of them large-scale outdoor sculptures, have been placed in virtually every major city of the Western world.
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