“THE PLANET” is an artwork created by Alexander Calder in 1933, which belongs to the Surrealist movement. The genre of the piece is figurative. As the artist’s name, artwork title, date, movement, and genre suggest, Calder aimed to fuse imagination with reality, characteristic of Surrealism, while also emphasizing a tangible form or figure in the piece.
The artwork depicts what appears to be an abstracted celestial scene with planetary bodies. The largest form resembles a planet, with a darkened sphere surrounded by a bold ring, evocative of a planet with its rings, such as Saturn. To the right, a thinner, elongated element or line stretches across the composition, possibly suggesting an orbit or a trajectory. A smaller spherical shape seems to float, following this path, perhaps representing a moon or another celestial body.
Calder’s use of stark contrasts, with the black forms set against a light background, emphasizes the visual impact of the shapes. The textured surface of the planetary bodies adds a tactile element to the otherwise two-dimensional space, inviting viewers to imagine the roughness of an astral surface. The fluid, wavy line at the bottom edge of the image introduces a sense of motion or the undulation of space, which further contributes to the surreal and cosmic atmosphere of the scene.
