Calder. Dreaming in Equilibrium: The Retrospective Exhibition of the Sculptor at the Fondation Louis Vuitton

Following the retrospective of German painter Gerhard Richter, the Fondation Louis Vuitton continues to push the boundaries of contemporary art! From April 15 to August 16, 2026, the institution celebrates the centenary of Alexander Calder’s arrival in France and the 50th anniversary of his death with "Calder. Dreaming in Equilibrium", a retrospective featuring nearly 300 works: mobiles, stabiles, wire portraits, wooden sculptures, paintings, drawings, and sculptural jewelry. Spread across 3,000 square meters, visitors navigate through a mesmerizing dance of gravity, light, positive and negative space, set against the backdrop of the Fondation's architectural volumes conceived by Frank Gehry. Here, each piece moves… or at least appears to, frozen in a timeless suspension.

The journey also delves into the artist’s roots: at 25, he reconnects with his family’s artistic legacy in painting and drawing before settling in Montparnasse in 1926, where his wire sculptures and his miniature Cirque Calder mesmerize Parisian avant-gardes. Thanks to the Whitney Museum of American Art, this whimsical circus makes its first return to Paris in fifteen years. Back then, acrobats, clowns, and tiny riders came to life under his hands, captivating an elite audience—including Léger, Mondrian, Miró, and Picasso, all front-row spectators!

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Curators Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer remind us that Calder didn't just invent new shapes—he infused movement into time itself, transforming sculpture into a living, breathing experience. To place the artist at the heart of the avant-garde, works by Mondrian, Arp, Hepworth, Klee, and Picasso flank his genius, highlighting the radical nature of his innovations. Meanwhile, 34 photographs by Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, and Agnès Varda reveal a versatile artist straddling the line between life and art, like a tightrope walker.

From his early abstract works to his monumental sculptures of the 1960s-70s, Calder reimagines sculpture on every scale. Art is no longer static; it dreams in perfect balance.