The Calder Foundation has acquired a sprawling new space at 207 West 25th Street where it intends to expand its scholarly activities and create a non-public exhibition space. Director Alexander S.C. Rower, the artist’s grandson, has long been seeking a permanent home for the 18-year-old organisation, which under his guidance has documented 22,000 works by Calder and amassed an archive of more than 120,000 documents, 26,000 photographs, dozens of films, and thousands of articles and publications. The 12,500-square-foot skylit top floor of a former printing plant is six times larger than the foundation’s former building.
“We want to encourage scholarship about Calder,” says Mr Rower, who plans to create a library and establish a conservation studio, and on-site storage for 4,000 drawings. Calder paintings and sculptures will be displayed alongside works by Leger, Miró, and other contemporaries in a 3,000-square-foot museum-like space, but it will not be open to the general public. “There will be a study centre for scholars and graduate students,” says Mr Rower, who adds, however, that the centre will not be open to the trade. “We don’t have the staff to accommodate art dealers for their commercial transactions,” he explains, “but we do have staff for scholars interested in furthering study of Calder.”
The foundation will, nonetheless, continue to help people in the trade regarding the provenance of specific works. The offices have already moved in and building is expected to be finished in February.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Dealers not welcome says director of Calder Foundation'