Alexander Calder, American (18981976)

Alexander Calder, internationally famous by his mid-30s, is renowned for developing a new idiom in
modern art-the mobile.
His works in this mode, from miniature to monumental, are called mobiles (suspended moving
sculptures), standing mobiles (anchored moving sculptures) and stabiles (stationary constructions).
Calder's abstract works are characteristically direct, spare, buoyant, colorful and finely crafted. He
made ingenious, frequently witty, use of natural and manmade materials, including wire, sheet metal,
wood and bronze.
Calder was born in 1898 in Philadelphia, the son of Alexander Stirling Calder and grandson of
Alexander Milne Calder, both well-known sculptors. After obtaining his mechanical engineering
degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology, Calder worked at various jobs before enrolling at the
Art Students League in New York City in 1923. During his student years, he did line drawings for the
National Police Gazette. In 1925, Calder published his first book, Animal Sketches, illustrated in brush
and ink. He produced oil paintings of city scenes, in a loose and easy style. Early in 1926, he began to
carve primitivist figures in tropical woods, which remained an important medium in his work until
1930. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio proved pivotal. Calder began to work in an abstract style,
finishing his first nonobjective construction in 1931.
In early 1932, he exhibited his first moving sculpture in an exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp,
who coined the word "mobile." In May 1932, Calder's fame was consolidated by the first United States
show of his mobiles. Some were motor-driven, His later wind-driven mobiles enabled the sculptural
parts to move independently, as Calder said, "by nature and chance." Calder returned to the United
States to live and work in Roxbury, Massachusetts in June 1932.
From the 1940s on, Calder's works, many of them large-scale outdoor sculptures, have been placed in
virtually every major city of the Western world. In the 1950s, he created two new series of mobiles:
"Towers," which included wall-mounted wire constructions, and "Gongs," mobiles with sound.
Calder was prolific and worked throughout his career in many art forms. He produced drawings, oil
paintings, watercolors, etchings, along with moving sculptures. He also designed jewelry, tapestry,
theatre settings and architectural interiors. Calder died in 1976.

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Alexander Calder Worksheet

Directions: Read passage on Alexander Calder and answer the questions in complete sentences.
1. What is the name of the artist that the passage is about?

2. What new idiom did the artist develop in modern art?

3. What are some of the words that describe the artists work?

4. What kinds of materials did he use?

5. Where and when was the artist born?

6. What was the title of the artists first book?

7. In the passage the artist is quoted, by nature and chance. What is the quote referring to?

8. In 1950 he created a series of moving sculptures what were they titled?

9. In the last paragraph it mentions other types of artwork that the artist created can you name some of the
other things he would create?

10. When did the artist die and how old did he live to be?