American sculptor and visual artist (1898-1976), Alexander Calder was the inventor of the “mobile,” a suspended, articulated sculpture set in motion by the air. He also created “stabiles,” large fixed abstract sculptures made of metal.
Alexander Calder(1898 — 1976)
Alexander Calder
États-Unis
6 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1898 in Lawnton (Pennsylvania) into a family of artists, first trained as a mechanical engineer
- Created his miniature wire “Circus” in Paris in the 1920s, a performance that made him famous
- Invented the “mobile” around 1931-1932 (a term proposed by Marcel Duchamp), an abstract sculpture in motion
- Developed the “stabiles” (a term suggested by Jean Arp), monumental fixed sculptures installed in public spaces
- Died in 1976 in New York, leaving behind a major body of work in 20th-century art
Works & Achievements
Miniature circus made of wire and salvaged materials, which Calder brought to life in live performances. A founding work, now kept at the Whitney Museum.
The first abstract sculptures set in motion, some initially driven by motors, then by air currents alone. A major invention in modern sculpture.
Mobile commissioned for the grand staircase of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which became an icon of mobile art.
Large stabile-mobile installed in front of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, a symbol of postwar monumental art.
Hanging mobile created for the terminal of New York's international airport, integrating art into modern public space.
Bright red monumental stabile installed in Grand Rapids, Michigan — the first public sculpture funded by an American federal program; it became the city's emblem.
A 16-meter stabile of vermilion-red painted steel, standing in a Chicago plaza in contrast with the surrounding black skyscrapers.
Anecdotes
In 1926, the young Calder set up a miniature circus in Paris made entirely of wire, corks, fabric, and buttons. For whole evenings, he himself brought to life his acrobats, wild beasts, and trapeze artists before an audience of dazzled artists such as Joan Miró and Fernand Léger.
It was the painter Marcel Duchamp who, in 1931, coined the word “mobiles” for Calder's suspended, moving sculptures. The following year, the sculptor Jean Arp invented in return the word “stabiles” to describe his large fixed works resting on the ground.
Calder was trained as an engineer: he earned a degree in mechanical engineering before turning to art. This training explains his genius for balance, for his mobiles hang in suspension thanks to a precise calculation of weights and points of support.
In 1930, a visit to the studio of the painter Piet Mondrian turned Calder's world upside down. Faced with the rectangles of primary colors pinned to the wall, he imagined setting them in motion: this shock pushed him toward abstract art and the idea of movement.
Calder also made jewelry by hand — hundreds of brooches, necklaces, and bracelets in hammered brass and silver wire, which he often gave to his female friends. Many artists and celebrities proudly wore his unique creations.
Primary Sources
"Why must art be static? The next step in sculpture is motion."
"A mobile is, in a way, a little private celebration; an object defined by its movement and having no other existence."
Duchamp proposes the term "mobile" to name the animated sculptures that Calder exhibits in Paris.
"Disparities in form, size and color, set in motion, create contrasts, and it is out of these contrasts that the work is born."
Key Places
Calder's birthplace, in 1898, into a family where the father and grandfather were sculptors and the mother a painter.
City where Calder settled in 1926, created his Circus and invented the mobile, in contact with the European avant-gardes.
Farm and studio where Calder settled in 1933 and designed many of his mobiles and stabiles.
Village in the Touraine region where Calder set up a second studio in 1953, producing his immense stabiles in a nearby foundry.
Engineering school where Calder earned his degree in mechanical engineering in 1919, a formative training for his art of balance.
City where Calder studied at the Art Students League, exhibited at the MoMA and the Whitney, and where he died in 1976.
