Calder: A Changed Life

In 1953, Alexander Calder returned to live in France for the first time in twenty years, settling in the countryside outside Aix-en-Provence before finding a home in Saché in the Loire Valley. “A changed life like that might give me new ideas,” Calder told a journalist before setting sail. “With new tools and new materials, there could be new art.” Energized by the sweeping Provençal landscape and the intimate spaces of a seventeenth-century stone house, he flourished, embarking on bold new experiments in sculpture, along with works in gouache and ink. 

Through photographs, artworks and reflections from Alexander S. C. Rower, president of the Calder Foundation and grandson of the artist, and Rosalie Varda, daughter of photographer and filmmaker Agnès Varda, Calder’s close friend, this film explores the creative discoveries, places and friendships that shaped this pivotal chapter. Rower offers insight into his grandfather’s life and work, and Varda reflects on her mother’s dialogue with Calder and the photographs she made with him in 1953 and 1954.  

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition “Calder: François Premier” at Hauser & Wirth Paris, tracing a period of creative freedom and innovation that opened new possibilities for Calder’s work.