Alexander CalderSpotlight 2016–17

ABOUT ALEXANDER CALDER

Growing up an Artist

• Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania in 1898.

• Alexander Calder’s friends called him Sandy.

• His mother, father, and grandfather were all artists.

• He created his first sculpture when he was four years old.

• He loved to invent and play.

Alexander Calder’s first sculpture

Calder’s Self-Portrait as a (Kid) Artist

Calder the Engineer and Inventor

• Studied mechanical engineering and excelled at math.

• Made mechanical toys with wire, which became a complete

miniature circus as well as portraits of friends and animals.

• First artist to make art that moved, powered by air currents,

cranks, or motors.

• Invented the mobile.

• Made huge versions of his sculptures composed of steel plates,

some nearly 80 feet tall.

ABOUT ALEXANDER CALDER

Calder’s tallest sculpture, El Sol Rojo in Mexico City.

Alexander Calder, Big Red, 1959. Sheet metal and steel wire. 74 x 114 in. Whitney Museum of American Art.

CALDER’S PORTRAITS

Fernand Léger

Kiki de Montparnasse

CALDER’S TOYS

Calder created a complete, working miniature circus.• Master of ceremonies

• Horse with a girl balancing on his back

• Trick dog and lady trainer

• Horse with wings on a carriage

• Clowns

• Trapeze artists

• Lion tamer

• Chariot Race

• View video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6jwnu8Izy0

CALDER’S CIRCUS

• Calder invented the mobile.

• A mobile is a sculpture, suspended from the

ceiling or from a stand, that is based on

balance and can move.

CALDER’S MOBILES

Alexander Calder, Big Red, 1959. Sheet metal and steel wire. 74 x 114 in. Whitney Museum of American Art.

CALDER’S INFLUENCES: PIET MONDRIAN

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930, oil on canvas, 46 x 46 cm (Kunsthaus Zürich)

Reconstruction of 26 Rue du Départ, Paris based on 1926 photo by Paul Delbo. © 2014 STAM, Research and Production: Frans Postma Delft-NL.

CALDER’S INFLUENCES: JOAN MIRÓ

Joan Miró. Un Oiseau poursuit une abeille et la baisse, 1927. Oil, aqueous medium, and feathers on glue-sized canvas, 32 7/8 x 40 1/4". Private collection.

Joan Miró. The Escape Ladder, 1940. Gouache, watercolor, ink on paper. Museum of Modern Art.

• Mobiles are made up of levers.

• A lever has a bar and a fulcrum.

• Equal weights placed at equal distances from the fulcrum balances the lever.

• To balance a lever of different weights, you must shorten the distance of the heavier weight

to the fulcrum.

• This is how lighter weights are able to balance heavier weights.

THE SCIENCE OF MOBILES: LEVERS

FulcrumBar

Heavier weight with a shorter distance to the fulcrum.

Lighter weight with a longer distance from the fulcrum.

Balanced Lever

• Calder’s mobiles are carefully balanced.

• How does he balance the mobile with

objects that have different weights?

THE SCIENCE OF MOBILES: LEVERS

• How does Calder balance this mobile?

THE SCIENCE OF MOBILES: LEVERS

Alexander Calder, Big Red, 1959. Sheet metal and steel wire. 74 x 114 in. Whitney Museum of American Art.

Four Winds, 1963

CALDER’S MOBILE AT THE MCNAY

Alexander Calder, Four Winds, 1963. Painted steel and aluminum. Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Bequest of Robert H. Halff.

SPOTLIGHT 201617: ALEXANDER CALDER

More info at http://mcnayart.org/spotlight