Alexander Calder

Calder made stuff all the time. He was one of those people with nonstop eyes and hands: every scrap of stray matter was a candidate for transformation. Give him some wire, clothespins and a scrap of cloth and, presto chango, you had a bird or a cow or a circus clown: nothing, then something, which is what magic is.

-Quoted from Calder at Play: Finding Whimsy in Simple Wire, By Holland Cotter
Published: October 16, 2008, New York Times.

Alexander Calder was born in 1898, in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. He was the second child of artist parents—his father was a sculptor and his mother a painter. Calder was encouraged to create, and from the age of eight he always had his own workshop wherever the family lived.
His interest in making objects developed at an early age: he fashioned his own toys and made small animal sculptures from brass sheet for his parents such as Duck and Dog. The duck is kinetic—it rocks back and forth when tapped.

Despite his talents, Calder didn't aspire to become an artist. Perhaps it was watching his father struggle with money and worrying over commissions that deterred him. Instead, Calder went on to become an engineer. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Calder decided, in 1923, to become a painter and enrolled at the Art Students League in New York. His first paintings, mostly New York street scenes, reflect the realist approach of his teachers, including John Sloan and George Luks.

As a freelance artist for the National Police Gazette in 1925, he spent two weeks sketching at the circus; his fascination with the subject dates from this time. He also made his first sculpture in 1925; the following year he made several constructions of animals and figures with wire and wood. Calder’s first exhibition of paintings took place in 1926 at the Artist’s Gallery, New York.

Attracted by Paris' reputation as an artistic center, Calder moved there in 1926. Though he continued to return to New York for long stretches, he made Paris his home base for seven years.and it was here that his wire sculptures took off. He started working with wire as a kid; I used to get the...when they'd splice a cable in the street, there'd be a lot of crop ends of copper wire. - Calder interview, 1971, Oct. 26th, http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-alexander-calder-12226

In Paris he developed a miniature circus of articulated performers in wire, a material that he soon adapted for his sculpture. This miniature circus was titled, Cirque Calder, and was designed to be manipulated manually by Calder. Every piece was small enough to be packed into a large trunk, enabling the artist to carry it with him and hold performances anywhere. Its first performance was held in Paris for an audience of friends and peers, and soon Calder was presenting the circus in both Paris and New York to much success.
Working with wire was tantamount to combining sculpture and drawing in space. He created the wire works through bending and twisting, and utilising tools such as pliers and wire cutters to create his works.
In a series of wire portraits and full-size figures from the late 1920s, Calder captured with humor the features of his subjects, from president Calvin Coolidge and entertainer Josephine Baker, to his artist friend Joan Miró.

It was a visit to Mondrian's Paris studio that Calders work really shifted. He went from creating almost 'cute' whimsical sculptures to abstract art. In the 1920's and 1930's he was one of the first American artists to work with abstract art. But two things remained from his beginnings; motion and play, and this is how he revolutionized the art of sculpture by making movement one of its main components.

It was also around this time that Calder began creating his 'mobiles' for which he is most known. It was Marcel Duchamp who coined the term 'mobile' to designate Calder's moving sculpture. After a few experiments in abstract painting, he began making constructions of wire and wood, equipping some with a crank or a small motor that could set them in motion. "Just as one can compose colors, or forms," Calder said, "so one can compose motions."
It was in the early 30s that Calder relied less on motors to create movement and more on the natural element of wind, and air currents in a room.

Calder also devoted himself to making outdoor sculpture on a grand scale from bolted sheet steel. These 'static' sculpture are known as Calder's 'stabiles'.

In 1933, Calder and his wife Louisa left France and returned to the United States, where they purchased an old farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they would spend the rest of their lives. Calder converted an icehouse attached to the main house into a studio for himself. Their first daughter, Sandra, was born in 1935, and a second daughter, Mary, followed in 1939.
In 1937, Calder created his first large bolted stabile fashioned entirely from sheet metal, which he entitled Devil Fish. Enlarged from an earlier and smaller stabile, the work was exhibited in a Pierre Matisse Gallery show, Stabiles and Mobiles.
By the time of his first major show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, Calder’s quiet revolution was known internationally. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s he was commissioned to create site specific “stabiles” and had major retrospectives in a number of cities including Amsterdam, Berne, and Rio de Janiero. During the 1950s, Calder traveled widely and executed Towers (wall mobiles) and Gongs (sound mobiles). He won the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale.
By the time of his death in 1976, Calder had made everything from jewelry to children’s toys to major monuments for the Lincoln Center in New York and UNESCO in Paris. Calder died at the age of seventy-eight, ending the most prolific and innovative artistic career of the twentieth century.

http://calder.org/home

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