Birth Year : 1898
Death Year : 1976
Country : US
Alexander Calder was born in Philadelphia. He was the son of Alexander
Stirling Calder and the grandson of Alexander Milne Calder, both well-known
sculptors. He studied mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of
Technology, and art at the Art Students League in New York City. In 1925,
after doing line drawings for the National Police Gazette he published
his first book, "Animal Sketches", in brush and ink. His oil paintings
of urban scenes were painted in a loose and easy style. In 1926, he began
to carve primitivist figures in tropical woods, which remained an important
medium in his work until 1930. In 1931, after a visit to abstract artist
Piet Mondrian's studio, he did his first
non-objective construction.
Alexander Calder made ingenious, witty use of natural and man-made materials
including wire, sheet metal, wood and bronze to create his "mobiles," a
name first used by Marcel Duchamp to
describe this new idiom in modern art. Calder created mobiles (suspended,
moving structures), standing mobiles (anchored, moving sculptures), and
stabiles (stationary constructions). His first mobiles were motor driven,
later they were wind driven to enable all parts to move independently of
each other "by nature and chance" as Calder worded it.
In 1935, after attending classes at the Académie de la Grande
Chaumier, Paris, Calder made his first wire sculptures. Calder worked in
many art forms including drawing, oil painting, watercolor, etching, gouache
and serigraphy. He also designed jewelry, tapestry, theatre settings and
architectural interiors. He died in 1976.
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Alexander
Calder
Sunburst
(lithograph)
Alexander
Calder
Skybird
(lithograph)
Alexander
Calder
Friendship
(lithograph)
Alexander
Calder
Pyramid
Alexander
Calder
Red
Sun (lithograph)
Books about Alexander
Calder |
