Alexander Calder

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Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder
Birth name	Alexander Calder
Born	July 22, 1898 Lawnton, Pennsylvania
Died	November 11, 1976 New York, NY
Nationality	United States
Field	Sculpture
Training	The Art Students League, New York
Movement	Kinetic Sculpture
Famous works	Cirque Calder (beg. 1926), Aztec Josephine Baker, International Mobile (Philadelphia), Flamingo (Chicago, 1976)

Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976), also known as Sandy Calder, was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs and tapestry and designed carpets.

Contents 1 Early Years 2 Art career 3 Selected works 4 Monumental Sculptures and Public Works 4.1 United States 4.2 Outside the United States 5 Bibliography 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] Early Years

Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania on July 22, 1898 , Calder came from a family of artists. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, a majority of them located in Philadelphia. Calder’s grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, was born in Scotland and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1868. Calder’s mother, Nanette Lederer Calder, was a professional portrait painter who studied at the Académie Julien and the Sorbonne in Paris from around 1888 until 1893. She then moved to Philadelphia where she met Alexander Stirling Calder while studying at the Penna Academy of the Fine Arts.^[1] Calder’s parents were married on February 22, 1895. His older sister, Margaret “Peggy” Calder, was two years his senior. Her married name was Margaret Calder Hayes, and she was instrumental in the development of the UC Berkeley Art Museum. ^[2]

In 1902, at the age of four, Calder posed for his father’s sculpture The Man Cub that is now located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In that same year, he completed his earliest sculpture, a clay elephant. ^[3]

Three years later, when Calder was seven and his sister was nine, Stirling Calder contracted tuberculosis and Calder’s parents moved to a ranch in Oracle, Arizona leaving the children in the care of family friends for a year.^[4] The children were reunited with their parents in late March, 1906 and stayed at the ranch in Arizona until fall of the same year. ^[5]

After Arizona, the Calder family moved to Pasadena, California. The basement of the family home became Calder’s first studio and his parents encouraged him to make jewelry from copper wire and beads for his sister’s dolls. In 1909, when Calder was in the fourth grade, he sculpted a dog and a duck out of sheet brass as Christmas gifts for his parents. The sculptures were three dimensional and the duck was kinetic because it rocked when gently tapped. These sculptures are frequently cited as early examples of Calder’s skill. ^[6]

Although his parents encouraged his creativity as a child, they discouraged their children from becoming artists, knowing that it was an uncertain and financially difficult career. Calder initially trained as a mechanical engineer, receiving a degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919. For the next several years, he worked a variety of engineering jobs, including working as an assistant to a hydraulics engineer and engineer in a Canadian logging camp, but he was not content in any of the roles.

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In June 1922, Calder started work as a fireman in the boiler room of the passenger ship H. F. Alexander. While the ship sailed from San Francisco to New York City, Calder woke on deck off the Guatemalan Coast and witnessed both the sun rising and the moon setting on opposite horizons. Calder called this experience an "inspirational vision" and he continued to refer to it throughout his life. As he described in his autobiography:

It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch — a coil of rope — I saw the beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other.

[edit] Art career

Having decided to become an artist, Calder moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Students' League. Whilst a student, he worked for the National Police Gazette which landed him a job working with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Calder became fascinated with the circus, sketching a number of studies on circus themes and sculpting a number of wire frame circus animals and carnival performers. Upon graduating, Calder moved to Paris to continue his studies in art. He took his wire model circus with him and gave elaborately improvised shows recreating the performance of a real circus. Soon, his "Cirque Calder"[1] (now on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art) became popular with the Parisian avant-garde, and Calder began charging an entrance fee to see his two hour show of a circus that he could pack into a suitcase.[2][3]

In 1928, Calder held his first solo show at a commercial gallery at the Weyhe Gallery in New York City. In 1934 he had his first solo museum exhibition in the United States at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.

He spent much of the next decade criss-crossing the Atlantic to give shows in Europe and America. On one transatlantic steamer, he met his wife, Louisa James, grandniece of author Henry James and philosopher William James. They married in 1931.

While in Paris, Calder met and became friends with a number of avant-garde artists, including Joan Miró, Jean Arp and Marcel Duchamp. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930 "shocked" him into embracing abstract art.

The Cirque Calder can be seen as the start of Calder's interest in both wire modeling and kinetic art. He maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures and utilized these to develop the kinetic sculptures Duchamp would ultimately dub as "'mobiles". He designed some of the characters in the circus to perform suspended from a thread. However, it was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrian that lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and pulleys.

By the end of 1931, he had quickly moved on to more delicate sculptures which derived their motion from the air currents in the room. From this, Calder's true "mobiles" were born. At the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Arp to differentiate them from mobiles.

Calder and Louisa returned to America in 1933 to settle in a farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised a family (first daughter, Sandra born 1935, second daughter, Mary, in 1939). Calder continued to give "Cirque Calder" performances but also worked with Martha Graham, designing stage sets for her ballets with Erik Satie.

During the World War II, Calder attempted to join up as a marine but was rejected. Instead, he continued to sculpt, but a scarcity of metal lead to him producing work in carved wood. After the war, Calder held several major retrospective exhibitions, including one in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943.

Calder was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. His mobile, International Mobile was the centerpiece of the exhibition and hangs in 2006 where it was placed in 1949.

In the 1950s, Calder increasingly concentrated his efforts on producing monumental sculptures. Notable examples are ".125" for JFK Airport in 1957 and "La Spirale" for UNESCO in Paris 1958. Calder's largest sculpture, at 20.5 m high, was "El Sol Rojo", constructed for the Olympic games in Mexico City.

In 1966, Calder published his Autobiography with Pictures with the help of his son-in-law, Jean Davidson.

In 1973 Calder was commissioned by Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size DC-8-62 as a "flying canvas", In 1975, Calder completed a second plane, this time a Boeing 727-227, as a tribute to the U.S. Bicentennial.

Calder died on November 11, 1976, shortly following the opening of another major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York. Calder had been working on a third plane, entitled "Tribute to Mexico", when he died.

Reporter: How do you know when its time to stop [working]?

Calder: When it's suppertime.

- From a television interview

[edit] Selected works

• Dog (1909), folded brass sheet; this was made as a present for Calder's parents

• The Flying Trapeze (1925), oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in.

• Elephant (c. 1928), wire and wood, 11 1/2 x 5 3/4 x 29.2 in.

• Aztec Josephine Baker (c. 1929), wire, 53" x 10" x 9". A representation of Josephine Baker the exuberant lead dancer from La Révue Nègre at the Folies Bergère.

• Untitled (1931), wire, wood and motor; one of the first kinetic mobiles.

• Feathers (1931), wire, wood and paint; first true mobile, although designed to stand on a desktop

• Cone d'ebene (1933), ebony, metal bar and wire; early suspended mobile (first was made in 1932).

• Form Against Yellow (1936), sheet metal, wire, plywood, string and paint; wall- supported mobile.

• Mercury Fountain (1937), Sheet metal and mercury

• Devil Fish (1937), sheet metal, bolts and paint; first piece made from a model.

• 1939 New York World's Fair (maquette) (1938), sheet metal, wire, wood, string and paint

• Necklace (c. 1938), brass wire, glass and mirror

• Sphere Pierced by Cylinders (1939), wire and paint [4]; the first of many floor standing, life size stabiles (predating Anthony Caro's plinthless sculptures by two decades)

• Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939), sheet metal, wire and paint (suspended mobile); design for the stairwell of the Museum of Modern Art, New York

• Black Beast (1940), sheet metal, bolts and paint; freestanding plinthless stabile)

• S-Shaped Vine (1946), sheet metal, wire and paint (suspended mobile)

• Sword Plant (1947) sheet metal, wire and paint (Standing Mobile)

• Snow Flurry (1948), sheet metal, wire and paint (suspended mobile)

• .125 (1957), steel plate, rods and paint

• La Spirale (1958), steel plate, rod and paint, 360" high; public monumental mobile for Maison de l'U.N.E.S.C.O., Paris

• Teodelapio (1962), steel plate and paint, monumental stabile, Spoleto, Italy

• Man (1967) stainless steel plate, bolts and paint, 65' x 83' x 53', monumental stabile, Montreal Canada

• La Grande Vitesse (1969), steel plate, bolts and paint, 43' x 55' x 25', Grand Rapids, Michigan

• Eagle (1971), steel plate, bolts and paint, 38'9" x 32'8" x 32'8", Seattle, Washington

• Cheval Rouge (Red Horse) (1974), red painted sheet metal, at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.

• Flamingo (1974), red painted steel, at the Federal Plaza, Chicago, Illinois

• The Red Feather (1975), black and red painted steel, 11' x 6'3" x 11'2", The Kentucky Center

• Untitled (1976), aluminum honeycomb, tubing and paint, 358 1/2 x 912", National Gallery of Art Washington

• Mountains and Clouds (1976), painted aluminum and steel, 612 inches x 900 inches, Hart Senate Office Building

[edit] Monumental Sculptures and Public Works

[edit] United States

California

• The Hawk for Peace, 1968, Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley

• Three Quintains, 1964, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

• Four Arches, 1974, Security Pacific National Bank, Los Angeles

• Spinal Column, 1968, Museum of Modern Art, San Diego

• Le Faucon (The Falcon), 1963, Stanford University, Stanford

• Button Flower, 1959, UCLA, Los Angeles

Connecticut

• Stegosaurus, 1973, Alfred E. Burr Mall, Hartford

• Gallows and Lollipops, 1960, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

Georgia

• Three Up, Three Down, 1973, High Museum, Atlanta

Illinois

• Flamingo, 1974, Federal Center Plaza, Chicago

• Universe, 1974, Sears Tower, Chicago

• Le Baron, 1965, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb

Indiana

• Peau Rouge, 1970, Musical Arts Center, Indiana University, Bloomington

Kansas

• Eléments Démontables, 1975, Bank IV Kansas, Wichita

Kentucky

• The Red Feather, 1975, Kentucky Center for the Arts, Louisville

Maryland

• Four Dishes, 1967

• The 100 Yard Dash, 1969, The Baltimore Museum of Art

Massachusetts

• La Grande Voile (The Big Sail), 1965 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. MIT also has a study model of La Grande Voile.

Michigan

• La Grande Vitesse, 1969, Vandenberg Plaza, Grand Rapids

• Jeune fille et sa suite, 1970, Michigan Bell Telephone Building, Detroit

Minnesota

• The Spinner, 1966, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

• Octopus, 1964, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Missouri

• Tom's Cubicle, 1967

• Ordinary, 1969, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

• Five Rudders, 1965, Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis

• Shiva, 1965, Crown Center, Kansas City

New Jersey

• Hard to Swallow, 1966

• The Stevens Mobile, 1970, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken

• Five Discs, One Empty, 1970, The Art Museum, Princeton University

• El Sol Rojo (intermediate maquette), 1968, The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton

New York

• Triangles and Arches, 1965, Empire State Plaza, Albany

• The Arch, 1975, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville

• Object in Five Planes, 1965, Federal Plaza, New York City

• .125, 1957, John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City

• Le Guichet (The Ticket Window), 1963, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

• Saurien, 1975, IBM building, New York City

• Large Spiny, 1966, Pocantico Hills Estate, Tarrytown

• Hats Off, 1969, Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Garden at PepsiCo, Purchase

• Three Arches, 1963, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Museum of Art, Utica

• World Trade Center Stabile, 1970-71, 7 World Trade Center, New York City [destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001]

Pennsylvania

• The Ghost, 1964, Philadelphia Museum of Art

• White Cascade, 1975, Federal Reserve Bank of PA

• Three Discs, One Lacking, 1968, Pennsylvania Convention Center, PA

• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh, 1958, Pittsburgh International Airport, Pittsburgh

Tennessee

• Nenuphar (Lily Pad), 1968, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Washington

• The Eagle, 1971, Seattle Art Museum

Washington, D.C.

• Mountains and Clouds, 1976-87, Hart Senate Building

• 6 Dots Over a Mountain, 1956

• Deux Discs (Two Discs), 1965, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution

• Untitled, 1976, National Gallery of Art

• Gwenfritz, 1968, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Wisconsin

• Red, Black, and Blue, 1968, Milwalkee County Airport

[edit] Outside the United States

Australia

• Bobine, 1970, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

• Crossed Blades, 1967, Australia Square Tower, Sydney

Belgium

• Whirling Ear, 1957, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Brussels

Canada

• Man, 1967, Montreal

• Man (intermediate maquette), 1967, York University Art Gallery, Ontario

Denmark

• Slender Ribs, 1963

• Little Janey Waney, 1976

• Almost Snow Plow, 1976, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek

France

• Crinkly, 1969, Amboise

• Trois pics, 1967, Nouvelle Gare SNCF, Grenoble

• Théâtre de Nice, 1970, Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice

• L'araignée rouge (The Red Spider), 1976, Etablissement Public pour L'Aménagement de la Région de la Défense, Paris

• Caliban, 1964, Maison de la Culture de Bourges, Paris

• Nageoire (Fin), 1964, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

• La Spirale, 1958, UNESCO building, Paris

• Les ailes brisées (The Broken Wings), 1967, Conseils Général des Pyrénées Orientales, Perpignan

• Totem-Saché, 1974, Saché

• Les trois ailes (The Three Wings), 1963, Musée d'art Moderne, Saint-Etienne

• Les Renforts, 1963

• Empennage (Airplane Tail), 1953, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence Guillotine pour huit (Guillotine for Eight), 1963

• Reims croix du sud (Southern Cross of Reims), 1969, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq

Germany

• Tétes et queue (Heads and Tail), 1965, Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

• Les Triangles, 1963, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund

• Hextopus, 1955, American Consulate General, Frankfurt

• Le Hallebardier, 1971, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover

• Cinq Pics, 1972, Insel Hombroich, Neuss

• Crinkly with a Red Disc, 1973, Stuttgarter Schlossplatz, Stuttgart

Holland

• Tamanoir (Anteater), 1963, City of Amsterdam

Italy

• Teodelapio, 1962, City of Spoleto

Ireland

• Cactus provisoire, 1967, Trinity College, Dublin

Israel

• Jerusalem Stabile, 1976, Jerusalem

• The Cow, 1977, Jersusalem Foundation Community Center

• The Sun at Croton, 1960; Untitled, 1967, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Japan

• Les Arétes de poisson (The Fish Bones), 1966, The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa

• Fafnir-Dragon II, 1969, Nagoya City Art Museum

• Flamingo (intermediate maquette), 1973, The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga Otsu

Mexico

• El Sol Rojo, 1968, Aztec Stadium, Mexico City

South Korea

• Grand Crinkly, 1971, Ho-am Art Museum, Seoul

Spain

• Quatre ailes (Four Wings), 1972, Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona

Sweden

• Three Wings, 1963, City of Gotenborg

Switzerland

• The Tree, 1966, Fondation Beyeler, Basel

• Brasilia, 1965, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny

• Stabile, 1963, The Nestle Art Collection, Le Vevey

Venezuela

• The City, 1960, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas

• Aula Magna, 1954, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas

[edit] Bibliography

• Calder, Alexander. An Autobiography With Pictures. HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-853268-7.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexander Calder

• Official Calder web site
• National Gallery of Art - Alexander Calder mobile
• Guggenheim collection Alexander Calder bio.
• Mechanical Engineering Magazine - December 1998 Alexander Calder bio.
• 5' 56" Video of Calder Mobile at the National Gallery of Art at Google Video
• Alexander Calder Images and Biography: Hollis Taggart Galleries
• Highly organized Alexander Calder directory