Alexander Calder
1989 – 1976
Biography
Alexander Calder was an American artist born in 1898 in Pennsylvania to a family of established sculptors. He was predominantly a sculptor himself and is widely recognised as the inventor of the mobile but during his long career he also created stabile sculptures, lithographs, paintings, toys and jewellery.
Calder enrolled in the Art Students League in New York in 1923 and worked for the National Police Gazette during his time as a student. After a move to Paris in 1926 to establish a studio, he spent some time crafting toys, and notably created a miniature circus, Cirque Calder, which was particularly successful and enraptured the avant-garde.
Shortly after setting up his Parisian studio, Calder moved back to the US where he held his first solo exhibition in New York in 1928. His first retrospective was held 10 years later in Massachusetts and in 1943 the Museum of Modern Art hosted another retrospective curated by James Johnson Sweeny and Marcel Duchamp. By this time Calder had advanced from wire sculpture and kinetic artworks onto the true development of the mobile, and also made works in wood during World War II when metal was scarce.
In the 50s and 60s, Calder increasingly concentrated on the production of monumental sculptures; his largest (20.5m high) was produced for the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. Another of his works was placed in the World Trade Centre's North Tower in 1971; it was positioned in front of 7 World Trade Centre when it was destroyed on 11 September 2001.
During the later years of his life, Calder was commissioned to paint two full-sized aeroplanes. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George Ford – the United States' highest civilian honour.
Images
Mobile (maquette for Work in Progress) 1968 Sheet metal, wire and paint 76.2 x 113 cm © Alexander Calder, DACS 2009. All rights reserved. The depiction of artworks herein should not necessarily be considered an intimation of ownership
Striped Woman 1946 Oil on canvas 63.5 x 76 cm © Alexander Calder, DACS 2009. All rights reserved.