Calder x Miró: Prints and Drawings at Kahan Gallery

Calder x Miró: A Visionary Pairing in Late-Period Genius

This fall, the Kahan Gallery unveils an exhibition exploring the lifelong creative dialogue between two titans of 20th-century art—Alexander Calder and Joan Miró. Titled “Calder x Miró: Prints and Drawings, 1967–1976”, this curated showcase opens on October 9, 2025, at the gallery’s 922 Madison Avenue location in New York City. Running through January 24, 2026, the exhibition draws attention to a lesser-known but deeply significant period in both artists’ careers—when they each turned with renewed intensity to their works on paper.

Rather than resting on their laurels as masters of sculpture and painting, Calder and Miró, in their later years, embraced gouache, lithography, etching, and aquatint as fertile mediums for experimentation. The results are electric: bold, improvisational, and deeply personal. “Miró is my favorite painter along with Matisse,” Calder once declared. “Yes, and Klee… the archaeologists will tell you there’s a little bit of Miró in Calder and a little bit of Calder in Miró.” Their kinship, both spiritual and artistic, is palpable throughout the exhibition.

Calder x Miró: Works on Paper That Transcend Mediums

“Calder x Miró” brings together over twenty works, including primary market prints, gouaches, illustrated books, and even a tapestry—many of which haven’t been publicly exhibited in nearly sixty years. Among the highlights are Miró’s complete set of six vertical lithographs, The Seers (1970), and Calder’s prints from the evocative series The Elementary Memory (1976). These pieces reflect the elemental, almost dreamlike forms that defined their late-career output.

One standout is Miró’s The Sleep-Walker (1974), a large-scale etching and aquatint immersed in a nocturnal color palette that pulses with surreal movement. Placed alongside Calder’s Sea-star (1969), a marine-like gouache awash in floating organic shapes, the dialogue between the two artists becomes impossible to ignore. These are not static compositions but active fields of energy—where line, color, and space defy conventional boundaries.

The exhibition’s narrative is elevated by reflections from art historians and contemporaries. Jacques Dupin, Miró’s biographer, described the drive behind these works as an attempt “to go beyond painting.” Scholar Catherine Craft similarly noted that their late-career experimentation pushed the edges of their disciplines in ways often overlooked by major institutions.

Calder x Miró: A Timeless Encounter on Madison Avenue

Visitors to Calder x Miró at the Kahan Gallery will discover more than a retrospective; they’ll witness an intimate, poetic exchange between two kindred spirits, still inventing in the twilight of their careers. The exhibition, located on the second floor of the gallery, offers a rare opportunity to explore the tactile brilliance of these artists outside their monumental sculptures and public commissions.

For lovers of modernism, the show is a masterclass in visual lyricism. For seasoned collectors and emerging enthusiasts alike, it’s a window into how great artists distill their vision to its most essential elements. Calder’s rhythmic compositions and Miró’s abstract storytelling reveal not only their respective genius but also the powerful resonance of their lifelong creative kinship.