(AGENPARL) – Wed 15 October 2025 https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=bf6e1fb92f&e=59415c6e7e
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** WHITNEY MUSEUM LAUNCHES LIMITED-EDITION COLLABORATION WITH BODE AND THE CALDER FOUNDATION
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This Collection is Available for Purchase on Whitney.org and Coincides with the Whitney’s landmark exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100, opening October 18
New York, NY, October 15, 2025 — The Whitney Museum of American Art announces the launch of a special capsule retail collection (https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=7391a7f662&e=59415c6e7e) in collaboration with Bode and the Calder Foundation, celebrating the centennial of Alexander Calder’s iconic Calder’s Circus. This limited-edition collection drops on October 22 and corresponds with the landmark exhibition High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 opening on October 18 at the Whitney.
The eight-piece apparel and accessories collection draws from characters, costumes, and ephemera from Calder’s Circus through Bode’s distinctive approach to narrative craft, handwork, and historic detail. From exquisitely embroidered brooches to hand-painted shirting to graphic tees that use archival imagery, each piece is finished with collaborative “Calder – Bode – Whitney” markings in tribute to this landmark partnership.
“The Whitney Museum of American Art represents the best of American creativity and expression, which resonates deeply with my approach at Bode,” said Emily Adams Bode Aujla, founder and designer of Bode. “I’ve long been an admirer of Alexander Calder—his Cirque Calder captures a sense of wonder, movement, and craftsmanship, telling a story through each piece, much like the way I create collections.”
“Calder’s Circus lives not only as a major artwork in the Whitney’s collection, but as a touchstone for generations of artists and audiences,” said Jennie Goldstein and Roxanne Smith, co-curators of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100. “So much of Calder’s ingenuity comes from the way he transforms everyday materials into performance, sculpture, and through imagination. Our presentation of High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 invites visitors to encounter the work in all its intimacy and brilliance. This collaboration with Bode and the Calder Foundation extends that spirit beyond the galleries, bringing the characters, textures, and history of the Circus into objects people can live with, wear, and rediscover.”
“Bode’s immersive dive unto my grandfather’s Cirque Calder not only reveals a beautiful personal reflection by Emily but also underscores the importance of this genre of early performance art, which transcended simple spectacle at the turn of the twentieth century,” said Alexander S. C. Rower, president of the Calder Foundation and grandson of the artist.
All items are available beginning October 22 at shop.whitney.org, the Whitney Museum Store, and bode.com. All items will also be available at the Bode New York, Los Angeles and Paris retail locations.
Product Details
Calder Leo Brooch — $400
Inspired by the Lion Tamer act in Calder’s Circus, this brooch is handmade from yarn and cotton stuffing with embroidered collaboration tag.
Calder Fanni Brooch — $400
The brooch is inspired by Fanni the Belly Dancer act in Calder’s Circus, complete with rhinestone costuming and stitched identifiers with embroidered collaboration tag.
Calder Suitcase Box — $2,500
This wooden box references the five suitcases used to store and transport Calder’s Circus, featuring reproduced hotel labels, travel stamps, and the artist’s painted signature.
Calder Identity Card Tee — $200
This tee is printed with a photograph from Calder’s 1926 identity card on the front and an archival French newspaper review of Calder’s Circus on the back.
Calder Suitcase Tee — $200
This tee features a remastered still from the 1955 film Le Grand Cirque Calder 1927, showing Calder unpacking the Circus from its original suitcases.
Calder Painted Cirque Long Sleeve Shirt — $1,200
Hand-painted in Bode’s New York studio with Calder’s illustrations of animals, this shirt is finished with antique trim and performance references.
Calder Fanni Fringe Skirt — $700
Referencing Fanni, the Belly Dancer’s original performance costume, this skirt is designed in silky fringe with a crocheted waistband and rhinestone details.
About Calder’s Circus and the High Wire
Calder’s Circus is one of the most beloved artworks in the Whitney’s collection. With over 100 wire sculptures and objects, Calder’s Circus highlights the themes of movement, balance, suspense, and ephemerality that would later define the artist’s signature mobiles. High Wire (https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=57baea5f96&e=59415c6e7e) is the Whitney’s first exhibition dedicated to Calder’s Circus since moving to 99 Gansevoort and commemorates the artist’s innovation and the enduring impact this work has had on twentieth-century art.
While living as a young American artist in Paris in 1926, Calder began to build his Circus using everyday materials and found objects, creating a cast of characters that he would set in motion and narrate as a multi-act performance. Calder staged these presentations in informal settings, often for friends and artist peers. Designed to be portable, Calder’s Circus evolved over time as he continued to perform the work in Europe and America between 1926 and 1931. The exhibition brings together the iconic Calder’s Circus alongside wire sculptures, drawings, paintings, early abstractions, archival materials, and film to offer a view into the techniques and innovations that would define his career. Featured in the show are works from the Whitney’s collection, along with select loans from the Calder Foundation, New York.
** PRESS CONTACT
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For press materials and image requests, please visit our press site at whitney.org/press or contact:
Ashley Reese, Director of Communications
Whitney Museum of American Art
(212) 671-1846
Laura Taylor, Director of Marketing and Communications
Bode
Whitney Press Office
whitney.org/press
(212) 570-3633
** ABOUT THE WHITNEY
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The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.
Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment
The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.
As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgment, visit the Museum’s website (https://whitney.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=387f59a72ae7b64ccae37d5c9&id=8c39362ea2&e=59415c6e7e) .
** VISITOR INFORMATION
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The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors eighteen years and under and Whitney members: FREE. The Museum offers FREE admission and special programming for visitors of all ages every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month.
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Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street New York, NY 10014
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Image credits:
Photography Courtesy of Bode
All works by Alexander Calder © 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York