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Mar 11, 2024 · Originally trained as an engineer before he pursued art, Calder gained recognition beginning in the 1930s for his innovative mobile sculptures, which are distinguished by their suspended and balanced elements that move in response to natural air currents.
Today, encountering Calder’s iconic sculpture in the center of a city, in front of a courthouse, amid government buildings, in a bustling airport, or at the entrance to a museum is a hallmark of the postwar public art movement that he helped to invent.
Apr 15, 2024 · His legacy continues to influence contemporary artists and the broader field of kinetic art, promoting interdisciplinary creativity and innovation that transcends traditional boundaries between different art forms and disciplines.
Dec 4, 2015 · The American artist Alexander Calder (1898–1976) probably best known for his abstract coloured ‘mobiles’ as well as his large outdoor sculptures, was a key figure in the history of 20th-century art. Tate Etc. talks to his grandson.
- Summary of Alexander Calder
- Accomplishments
- Biography of Alexander Calder
American artist Alexander Calder redefined sculpture by introducing the element of movement, first through performances of his Cirque Calderand later with motorized works and, finally, with hanging works called "mobiles." In addition to his abstract mobiles, Calder also created static sculptures, called "stabiles," as well as paintings, jewelry, th...
Many artists made contour line drawings on paper, but Calder was the first to use wire to create three-dimensional line "drawings" of people, animals, and objects. These "drawings in space" introdu...Calder shifted from figurative linear sculptures in wire to nonobjective forms in motion by creating the first mobiles. Composed of pivoting lengths of wire counterbalanced with thin metal elements...Childhood
Alexander Calder was born into a long line of sculptors, being part of the fourth generation to take up the art form. Constructing objects from a very young age, his first known art tool was a pair of pliers. At eight, Calder was creating jewelry for his sister's dolls from beads and copper wire. Over the next few years, as his family moved to Pasadena, Philadelphia, New York, and San Francisco, he crafted small animal figures and game boards from scavenged wood and brass, and in 1909, he mad...
Early Training
In 1922, he took evening drawing classes at the 42nd Street New York Public School. The next year he studied painting at the Arts Students League (1923-1925), with John Sloan and George Lukswhile working as an illustrator for the National Police Gazette. An assignment to illustrate acts at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus led to his interest in the circus. In 1926, after showing paintings at The Artists' Gallery in New York he moved to Paris. Once there, he began making the mo...
Mature Period
In the late 1920s Calder created more figurative oil paintings, but a 1930 visit to Piet Mondrian'sstudio led Calder to shift from figuration to abstraction permanently. Upon entering the studio, Calder became fixated on the overall space and the colored cardboard rectangles covering one of the walls: he said he would like to make them “oscillate.” Calder began painting and sculpting in the abstract. In 1931 he accepted an invitation to join the influential Abstraction-Creation group. That sa...
- American
- July 22, 1898
- Lawnton, Pennsylvania
- November 11, 1976
Dec 8, 2021 · Calder’s work is extremely impressive in its own right, but what makes the Kunsthal exhibition so exciting is that they combine his work with the work of ten leading contemporary artists, all of whom are inspired in their own way by his oeuvre and innovations.
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Jun 17, 2012 · The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University presented an exhibition that provided a fresh perspective on modern sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976) and his influence on a new generation of artists.
