Acclaimed art critic Jed Perl is joined by Alexander S. C. Rower, founder and president of the Calder Foundation, for a reading, conversation, and book signing celebrating the publication of the first volume of Perl’s new biography of Alexander Calder. Based on Calder’s letters and papers and scores of interviews, Calder: The Conquest of Time, The Early Years: 1898–1940 shows why Calder was—and remains—a barrier breaker, an avant-garde artist with mass appeal.

Jed Perl, a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, was the art critic for the New Republic for twenty years. His previous books include Magicians and Charlatans, Antoine’s Alphabet, and New Art City.

Alexander S. C. Rower has curated and collaborated on more than one hundred Calder exhibitions worldwide. He has established an extensive archive dedicated to all aspects of Calder’s career and published many texts on the artist’s life and work.