GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Informed by the most important art movements in early 20th-century Europe, Alexander Calder's work has always been greatly inspired by the rhythms and movements of nature. Liberating sculpture from its pedestal, Calder revolutionized the medium and introduced motion into modern art.
Born in Philadelphia in 1898, Calder's early interests and training were in the field of engineering, even though his father was a sculptor and his mother was a painter. Formally trained as a mechanical engineer, Calder turned to art in 1923, at the age of 25. Enrolled in the Art Students League, New York, he studied under Ashcan painters, George Luks and John Sloan. Two years later he accepted a freelance assignment that proved a turning-point in his life: for weeks, he sketched the people and animals at the Ringling Brothers' Barnum and Bailey circus. In 1927, using bits of wire, string, cloth, yarn, and wood, he began to translate his sketches into a miniature circus. Later, in Paris, he gave "performances" of it accompanied by recorded music for a group of intellectuals and artists, many of whom — Arp, Léger, Miró, and Mondrian — became lifelong friends.
In the early 1930s, Calder took up abstraction and the use of primary colors. He produced his first mobile, so named by Marcel Duchamp, after a visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930. Calder said he wanted to make Mondrian's colored rectangles oscillate. His first abstract, geometrical constructions moved by electric motors or hand cranks. Dissatisfied, he then turned to balanced, hanging structures moved by random currents of air. In 1932, he began creating stationary sculptures that imply movement, which Jean Arp called stabiles. In the 1950s, Calder exhibited widely and won the Grand Prize for sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. In his lifetime Calder executed numerous major public commissions and had major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1976), and the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2003). He died on November 11, 1976, in New York.
Adapted from
- Suzanne Weaver, "Flower," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 272.
- DMA unpublished material, Label text [1949.13], 1973.
NOTES
See additional biographical info from education files-
"Primitivism Biographies," DMA research document, Education files, n.d.
Born in Philadelphia in 1898. Though his father was a sculptor and his mother was a painter, Calder's early interests and training were in the field of engineering. Only at age 25 was he drawn to the art world. In 1926 he traveled to Paris where his fascination with the circus was his first artistically realized project , He created a number of acrobats, animals and tiny performers out of wire and string which soon gave way to his first wire sculpture. He then came in contact with avante garde artists such as Miro, Pascin, and later Arp and Mondrian, who had an aesthetic influence on his first abstract stabiles; from these developed his first mobiles. The original motor powered mobiles quickly gave way to naturally powered movements from wind and shifting air currents. The mobiles produced constantly changing relationships between the solid objects and the atmosphere surrounding them. They were free to move in a wholly unpredictable and natural manner. and their constantly varying and intangible contours and rhythms challenged the principles and fundamental methods of sculpture. Nevertheless ,his mobiles had an immediate appeal through their plastic values and combined the modern cult of the machine with the whimsical. giving a new breath of life to traditional sculpture. In 1933 Calder moved his studio to a farm in Roxbury. Connecticut. From this studio he produced stage sets. and book illustration as well as the famous Mercury fountain for the Exposition International. His works varied from small minute objects to huge monumental commissions, and each had its own form of communication. The mobiles spoke through lines, curves, movement. and change, while his stabiles communicated through their line, structure and mass. Calder freed sculpture in a way that opened many doors for the artists who followed him.
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IMAGE ASSETS
267925586: UMO. [Caption] Portrait of Alexander Calder in 1947. Source: Carl Van Vechten, Wikimedia Commons, accessed July 11, 2016.
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- Calder Foundation~Follow this link to see Calder's life in photos.
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General Description
Informed by the most important art movements in early 20th-century Europe, Alexander Calder's work has always been greatly inspired by the rhythms and movements of nature. Liberating sculpture from its pedestal, Calder revolutionized the medium and introduced motion into modern art.
Born in Philadelphia in 1898, Calder's early interests and training were in the field of engineering, even though his father was a sculptor and his mother was a painter. Formally trained as a mechanical engineer, Calder turned to art in 1923, at the age of 25. Enrolled in the Art Students League, New York, he studied under Ashcan painters, George Luks and John Sloan. Two years later he accepted a freelance assignment that proved a turning-point in his life: for weeks, he sketched the people and animals at the Ringling Brothers' Barnum and Bailey circus. In 1927, using bits of wire, string, cloth, yarn, and wood, he began to translate his sketches into a miniature circus. Later, in Paris, he gave "performances" of it accompanied by recorded music for a group of intellectuals and artists, many of whom — Arp, Léger, Miró, and Mondrian — became lifelong friends.
In the early 1930s, Calder took up abstraction and the use of primary colors. He produced his first mobile, so named by Marcel Duchamp, after a visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930. Calder said he wanted to make Mondrian's colored rectangles oscillate. His first abstract, geometrical constructions moved by electric motors or hand cranks. Dissatisfied, he then turned to balanced, hanging structures moved by random currents of air. In 1932, he began creating stationary sculptures that imply movement, which Jean Arp called stabiles. In the 1950s, Calder exhibited widely and won the Grand Prize for sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. In his lifetime Calder executed numerous major public commissions and had major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1976), and the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2003). He died on November 11, 1976, in New York.
Adapted from
- Suzanne Weaver, "Flower," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 272.
- DMA unpublished material, Label text [1949.13], 1973.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
(digitized/non-digitized)
Web Resources
- Calder Foundation~Follow this link to see Calder's life in photos.
Notes
See additional biographical info from education files-
"Primitivism Biographies," DMA research document, Education files, n.d.
Born in Philadelphia in 1898. Though his father was a sculptor and his mother was a painter, Calder's early interests and training were in the field of engineering. Only at age 25 was he drawn to the art world. In 1926 he traveled to Paris where his fascination with the circus was his first artistically realized project , He created a number of acrobats, animals and tiny performers out of wire and string which soon gave way to his first wire sculpture. He then came in contact with avante garde artists such as Miro, Pascin, and later Arp and Mondrian, who had an aesthetic influence on his first abstract stabiles; from these developed his first mobiles. The original motor powered mobiles quickly gave way to naturally powered movements from wind and shifting air currents. The mobiles produced constantly changing relationships between the solid objects and the atmosphere surrounding them. They were free to move in a wholly unpredictable and natural manner. and their constantly varying and intangible contours and rhythms challenged the principles and fundamental methods of sculpture. Nevertheless ,his mobiles had an immediate appeal through their plastic values and combined the modern cult of the machine with the whimsical. giving a new breath of life to traditional sculpture. In 1933 Calder moved his studio to a farm in Roxbury. Connecticut. From this studio he produced stage sets. and book illustration as well as the famous Mercury fountain for the Exposition International. His works varied from small minute objects to huge monumental commissions, and each had its own form of communication. The mobiles spoke through lines, curves, movement. and change, while his stabiles communicated through their line, structure and mass. Calder freed sculpture in a way that opened many doors for the artists who followed him.
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