Alexander Calder American, 1898-1976

Alexander Calder (American, 1898–1976) is known as the originator of the mobile—sculptures that allowed and incorporated movement as part of their aesthetic—Alexander Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, the son of a sculptor. In 1923, he set aside his initial plan of becoming a mechanical engineer to enroll in the Art Students League of New York, studying briefly under Boardman Robinson and John Sloan. Calder made his first sculpture in 1925 and one year later, in 1926, he had his first exhibition of paintings at the Artist’s Gallery in New York. Shortly after the conclusion of this exhibition Calder moved to Paris and developed friendships with avant-garde artists, among them Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Léger. It was in 1931 and 1932 that Calder first began to introduce moving parts into his sculptures. These works—his most famous—represented a distinct departure from the conventional understanding of a work of art as static object. Rather than conceiving of sculpture as an immobile form or amalgamation of components, Calder welcomed his work’s engagement with currents of air. His small-scale mobiles and standing mobiles (kinetic sculptures with immobile bases) delicately balance and investigate movement while his monumental outdoor sculptures serve as iconic landmarks in cities around the globe. Two further innovative sculptural series created by Calder include the “gong” —a sound mobile containing small metallic hammers that struck the plates of the mobile when it moved—and the “tower”—a series of sculptures conceived in 1951 consisting of armatures affixed to a wall from which objects would be suspended. Calder’s influence extended beyond sculpture, as he also experimented with performance art, film, books, textile art, jewelry-making, and even domestic objects throughout the course of his lengthy career. Among his many accolades, in 1943, Calder became the youngest artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From the 1950s onwards, Calder was commissioned to execute a number of important public works, including ones for the New York Port Authority and for UNESCO in Paris. Calder died in November of 1976 in New York.