Alexander Calder - part 1

Alexander Calder 1947
Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) created two forms of sculpture that became synonymous with modern art—the mobile and the stabile. Composed of disparate abstract shapes and often brightly coloured, elements of the mobile move and rotate. The stabile is its stationary counterpart. Calder's innovative exploration of mass, colour, and movement strongly influenced younger artists, as well as popular culture.

Raised in Philadelphia, Calder was the son and grandson of well-known public sculptors. After studying engineering and science, he became interested in art and enrolled at the Art Students League in New York. Beginning in 1926, he began spending time in Europe. In Paris, he invented wire sculpture, described by critics as "drawings in space." He made circus animals and performers out of wire and other found materials. Known as "Cirque Calder," these dynamic creations helped to introduce the young American to the Parisian avant-garde, including Fernand Léger and Marcel Duchamp.

A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930 transformed Calder. He abandoned animals and figures as subjects and began making purely abstract constructions. In 1932, he exhibited his first mobiles. Some were motorised while others moved in response to air currents, affecting an elegant, kinetic play of lines and surfaces. In the same period, Calder began creating stabiles, which later developed into large-scale assemblages of sheet metal cut into various shapes and bolted together.

By the mid-1940s, Calder had attained international recognition. In addition to sculpture, he created paintings and drawings, costumes and set designs, jewellery and tapestries, all of which were composed of bold, abstract elements in primary and secondary colours. He established a home and studio in the French countryside, and so his sojourns in Europe lengthened. Calder's stabiles reached colossal size, often executed at industrial ironworks under the artist's supervision; they are installed at public sites around the world.

This is part 1 of a 16-part series on the works of Alexander Calder: 

1909 Dog
brass sheet 5.7 x 11.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1909 Duck
brass sheet 4.4 x 11.4 x 5 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1922 Untitled (Logging Scene)
oil on canvasboard 18.2 x 34.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1923 New York from Stevens Terrace
oil on canvas 76.2 x 91.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1924 Self-Portrait
oil on canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1924 Excavation
oil on canvas 91.4 x 75.8 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1924 Six Day Bike Race
oil on canvas 76.2 x 92 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1924 Old Madison Square Garden and Democrats
oil on canvas 76.2 x 92 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1925 Todd Shipyard
oil on canvas 91.4 x 76.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1925 The Flying Trapeze
oil on canvas 91.4 x 106.6 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1925 The Eclipse
oil on canvas 90.8 x 152.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1925 St. Regis Restaurant
oil on canvas 64.1 x 76.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1925 Fourteenth Street
oil on canvas 76.5 x 63.5 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1925 Forest Hills Stands
oil on jute canvas 91.4 x 91.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1926 Vache (Cow)
wire, wood, and string 8.8 x 20.6 x 10.1 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

c1926 Untitled (Circus Scene)
tempera and ink on paperboard 105.4 x .72.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1926 Struttin' His Stuff
brass wire (size not given)
Calder Foundation, New York

c1926 Josephine Baker
wood and wire 35.5 x 17.1 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1926 Red Horse
wood, wire, and paint 24.7 x 24.1 x 7.3 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1926 Galloping Horse
wire, wood, and leather 22.8 x 48.2 x 12.7 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1926 Firemen's Dinner for Brancusi
oil on canvas 91.4 x 106.9 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1926 Circus Scene
oil on canvasboard 177.1 x 202.09
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
 and Pacific Film Archive

1926-41 Horse and Rider
wire, wood, cork, leather, velvet, string, rubber tube, and lead 19.3 x 25.4 x 15.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1927 Soda Fountain
wire 50.1 high
The Museum of Modern Art, New York 

c1927 Mule
wire, wood, and paint  13.9 x 27.9 x 6.9 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1927 Leopard
wire and wood 22.8 x 29.2 x 14.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1927 Josephine Baker
steel wire 99 x 56.8 x 24.7 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York 

c1927 Gull
wire and wood 28.5 x24.1 x 13.3 cm
Calder Foundation, New York 

c1927 Elephant
wire and wood 29.2 x 14.6 x 29.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1927 Ball Player
wire and wood 46.9 x 40.6 x 33 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

c1927 Acrobats
wire and wood 87.6 x 228 x 30.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Kangaroo
wood, paint, and string 46.9 x 50.8 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Helen Wills 1
wire and wood 33.6 x 43.1 x 20.3 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Elephant Puzzle
wood and paint 19 x 33 x 19.6 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Dancer
wire and wood 43.1 x 24.1 x 16.5 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Calvin Coolidge
wire, wood, and paint 45.7 x 17.7 x 20.3 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Bird
wire and wood 34.2 x 18.4 x 14.6 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1927 Animated Coat Hanger
wire and wood 50.1 x 11.4 x 6.3 cm
Seattle Art Museum

1928 Erhard Weyhe
wire 66 x 30.1 x 25.7 cm
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1928 Elephant
wood 24.7 x 25.4 x 16.5 cm
Calder Foundation, New York 

1928 Dowager
wire and wood 29.2 x 11.4 x 30.1 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

1928 Cow
wood 49.8 cm high
Calder Foundation, New York

1928 Cat lamp (maquette)
wire and paper 22.2 x 25.7 x 7.9 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York 

1928 Caryatid
wood 100.9 21.5 x13.9 cm
Calder Foundation, New York 

1928 Bird cigarette holder
wire 32.2 x 8.2 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1928 Nymph
wood 90.8 x  56.5 x 44.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1928 Horse
wood 39 x 88.2 x 20.6 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

1928 Horse
sheet brass on wood base 13.3 x 24.1 x 3.8 cm
Private Collection

1928 Hercules and Lion
wire 152.4 x. 121.8 x 60.9 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1928 Helen Wills 2
wire and wood 52.7 x 73.6 x 21.5 cm
Calder Foundation, New York

1928 Frank Crowninshield
wire 36.8 x 25.4 x 30.4 cm
Calder Foundation, New York