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Alexander Calder, known to many as ‘Sandy’, was an American sculptor from Pennsylvania. He was the son of well-known sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder, and his grandfather and mother were also successful artists. Alexander Calder is known for inventing wire sculptures and the mobile, a type of kinetic art which relied on careful weighting ...
- 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 mechanical Calder's Circusand 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 painting...
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 "linear sculptures" introdu...Calder shifted from figurative linear sculptures in wire to abstract forms in motion by creating the first mobiles. Composed of pivoting lengths of wire counterbalanced with thin metal fins, the ap...Childhood
Alexander Calder, known as Sandy, 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. Ca...
Early Training
After graduating from college, Calder tried many jobs: automotive engineer, draftsman and map-colorist, steam boat stoker, and hydraulics engineer among them. 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 (1923-1926), with John Sloan and George Luks while working as an illustrator for the National Police Gazette. An assignment to illustrate acts at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circ...
Mature Period
In the late 1920s Calder created more figurative oil paintings, but a 1930 visit to Piet Mondrian's studio led Calder to shift from figuration to the abstraction permanently. Upon entering the studio, Calder became fixated on the colored rectangles covering one of the walls: he said he would like to make them physically move. Calder joined the influential Abstraction-Creation group and focused on finding a way to make abstract color move through space. A year later he exhibited his first abst...
- American
- July 22, 1898
- Lawnton, Pennsylvania
- November 11, 1976
Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. [ 3 ] His birthdate remains a source of confusion. According to Calder's mother, Nanette (née Lederer), Calder was born on August 22, yet his birth certificate at Philadelphia City Hall, based on a hand-written ledger, stated July 22. When Calder's family learned of the birth ...
- Alexander Calder was born in Philadelphia in 1898 to a family of artists. His mother was a painter, and his father, Alexander Stirling, and grandfather, Alexander Milne, were both well-established sculptors.
- Technically, Calder’s first kinetic sculpture was of a duck, which he presented to his mother as a Christmas gift in 1909. It was made from a formed, brass sheet and rocked back and forth when touched.
- Although Calder is known internationally as an artist, he initially studied mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.
- While working as an illustrator for the National Police Gazzette, Calder began taking evening drawing classes at the 42 Street New York Public School; a year later, he began studying painting at the Arts Students League with John Sloan and George Luks.
Alexander Calder was an American artist. He was born in 1898 in Pennsylvania, USA and died in 1976. Sculptures are usually still as people walk around them, but Calder's sculptures move. His style ...
Jan 8, 2018 · Cirque Calder (1926–31) In 1926, Calder moved to Paris to pursue an artistic career. There, he began to sculpt a miniature circus out of wire, cork, fabric, a repurposed eggbeater, crimped candy wrappers, and other odd scraps. Acting as ringmaster in front of an audience, Calder would pull the strings or turn the cranks that activated his ...
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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. His father and grandfather--both named Alexander Calder--were distinguished sculptors and his mother was a ...
