SAM's Odd Couple: Calder and Michelangelo

Seattle art critic Matthew Kangas said one of the weirdest things I have ever heard anyone say in public yesterday, at the press preview for SAM's new exhibit Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act (October 15-April 11, suggested SAM admission $9-$15). Trying to make a point about Miró's influence on Calder , he said, "If you take away the metal, it's a Miró painting."

Strictly speaking, if you take away the metal, there's nothing to paint. But more to the point, taking away the metal would be like trying to appraise cubism without all those angles. As the subtitle A Balancing Act implies, Calder's art has to do with the kinetics of taking up space. If much of 2D art is about the line, Calder's sculpture is about the line's tensile properties--in his work, the line bends, coils, springs, and supports.

Seattleites who aren't familiar with Alexander Calder probably are and just don't that he's the sculptor who produced " Eagle ," the painted-red steel piece that's become the icon of SAM's sculpture park . But Calder also worked on smaller scales, and SAM has a host of his mobiles to stand beside or under, in addition to jewelry and works on paper. (The works on paper, I should add, look nothing like Miró.)

The exhibit draws on the life's work of Calder (from 1927 to the '70s)--and local Calder collectors Jon and Mary Shirley. Jon says he remembers running into his first Calder in Philadelphia when he was 14. Their collection began with a Calder print, and grew to take over much of their house (talking about the mobiles, Jon said off-handedly, that one "hangs to the right of the TV").

Opening at the same time as the Calder exhibit is Michelangelo Public and Private (October 15-January 31, suggested SAM admission $9-$15), and the conceit here is that this is the art that Michelangelo didn't want you to see. On loan from Casa Buonarroti in Florence are twelve drawings that Michelangelo failed to burn when trying to burnish his reputation as an artist who worked by divine inspiration.

The show delivers on its "behind the curtain" promise, probably more so for artists who are curious what Michelangelo crosshatch looks like from up close. But to close the gap from these practice sketches, the exhibit also provides hi-res reproductions of Sistine Chapel artwork, so you can see how the face or arm turned out. There's also a grocery list and some other ephemera, to enhance the feeling of snooping through someone else's mail.

The positively vivacious Dr. Gary Radke is giving a talk about the exhibit on Friday (7-8 p.m., $4-$8). Radke is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University, and also the narrator of a new, free cell phone tour you can take through Michelangelo's work. He'll be focusing on the Sistine Chapel, before and after Michelangelo (later artists tidied up the naughty bits).