Alexander Calder: Multum in Parvo (2015), presented by Dominique Lévy, was an exhibition of over forty rare small-scale sculptures by the American master, installed in an environment conceived for the presentation by the architects Santiago and Gabriel Calatrava. Taking its title, Multum in Parvo, from the Latin phrase meaning “much in little,” the exhibition explored how Alexander Calder’s most diminutive works, ranging from thumb-sized to thirty inches tall, achieve monumental impact. These sculptures often share the same physical properties as Calder’s largest stabiles and mobiles but via the tiniest details.

Presented in collaboration with the Calder Foundation, the exhibition spotlighted for the first time the complex and often surprising relationship between scale and size in Calder’s oeuvre over more than thirty years. Calatrava’s environmental and architectural design honored the beauty and delicacy of Calder’s smaller sculptures, seeking to bring visitors into close contact with the minute details and gestures that give these works their magic.