Calder, Alexander (1898-1976), was one of the first American sculptors of international significance, and one of the best-known American artists of the 1900’s. Calder became famous for his witty and elegant sculptures called mobiles. The works received this name because they actually move when they are pushed by air currents. Earlier sculptors had given movement to sculpture by using motors or clockworks. Calder’s mobiles are delicately suspended abstract constructions of sheet metal parts and wires.
Calder was born on July 22, 1898, in Philadelphia. His father and grandfather were sculptors, and his mother was a painter. Calder received an engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919. He then studied painting at the Art Students League in New York City, and moved to Paris in 1926. Calder divided his time between Paris and New York until 1933, when he established his first American studio in Roxbury, Connecticut.
The early work of Calder in Paris included wooden toys, miniature circuses, and wire sculptures. In the early 1930’s, he began constructing mobiles, a term invented by artist Marcel Duchamp. Calder also started to build stabiles, a name first used by his friend and fellow artist Jean Arp. Stabiles resemble mobiles except that they do not move. Calder later created works that are combinations of the elements of both mobiles and stabiles. See Mobile .
Calder’s works have been exhibited in many countries, including major displays of his career in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art in 1964 and 1965, and at the Whitney Museum of Art in 1976. Some of his many important public sculptures can be seen in such places as UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Kennedy International Airport and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. He also created many lithographs. Calder died on Nov. 11, 1976.
