Brooch for Dorothy Canning Miller
Calder created more than eighteen hundred pieces of jewelry during his career, many made specifically for friends and family members. This piece offers an insight not only into the fine metalwork of his mobiles and wire sculptures, but also his professional and personal networks within the cultural world. The brooch was made as a gift for Dorothy Canning Miller, the Museum of Modern Art's first curator, and someone who was central to New York's contemporary art scene, advising collectors and artists, acting as a champion for radical new work and also a collaborator and friend to Calder for many years. As a personal token, the brooch exemplifies a warm, affectionate and mutually respectful friendship, with Calder's delicately rendered initials of Miller's name, "DM" creating a playful homage to his friend and advocate.
Artwork Details
- Title: Brooch for Dorothy Canning Miller
- Artist: Alexander Calder (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1898–1976 New York)
- Date: ca. 1950
- Medium: Brass
- Dimensions: 5 × 3 1/2 × 1/2 in. (12.7 × 8.9 × 1.3 cm)
- Classification: Jewelry
- Credit Line: Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020
- Object Number: 2021.54.8
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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