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Alexander Calder (/ˈkɔːldər/; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) is widely considered to be one of the most important American sculptors of the 20th century. He is best known for his colorful, whimsical abstract public sculptures and his innovative mobiles, kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents, which embraced chance in ...
- Arc of Petals, 1941
From the 1930s on, Calder created non-mechanized hanging,...
- Deutsch
Alexander Calder war Teilnehmer der documenta 1 (1955), der...
- Calder's Circus
Calder enrolled at the Art Students League in New York and...
- A Universe, 1934
In the early 1930s Calder's desire to create abstract...
- Spring, 1928
When Alexander Calder first exhibited Spring (Printemps,...
- The Man
During his later years Calder produced many monumental...
- Untitled, 1935
Untitled (1935) is representative of Calder's floor- and...
- Devil Fish, 1937
Counterpoint to his mobiles, Calder created many stabiles,...
- Arc of Petals, 1941
Mar 11, 2024 · Alexander Calder (1898–1976) was an American sculptor who is today regarded as one of the most influential figures in the development of kinetic art.
Jan 8, 2018 · Indeed, many of his early works foreshadow the large-scale masterpieces for which the artist is best known today—a progression charted by art critic Jed Perl in his newly published biography Calder: The Conquest of Time: The Early Years: 1898–1940. From wire portraits to hanging mobiles, the six works below represent significant shifts in ...
Aug 24, 2021 · American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898–1976) is perhaps best known for his innovative mobiles, kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents that embrace chance in their aesthetic.
- 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
Mar 12, 2021 · Art World. Alexander Calder’s Complete Archive Is Now Entirely Online—Discover Some of the Rare Photos, Sketches, and Ephemera Here. Click through the newly unveiled research archive before seeing MoMA’s ambitious new Calder show. Les Masques (1970).
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Biography. Alexander Calder is perhaps best known for his large, colorful sculpture, which incorporates elements of humor and chance into uniquely engineered structures. Calder was born outside of Philadelphia to a successful, artistic family.