Who is Alexander Calder?

Who is he?

Alexander Calder, known to many as ‘Sandy’, was an American sculptor from Pennsylvania. He was the son of well-known sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder, and his grandfather and mother were also successful artists. Alexander Calder is known for inventing wire sculptures and the mobile, a type of kinetic art which relied on careful weighting to achieve balance and suspension in the air. Initially Calder used motors to make his works move, but soon abandoned this method and began using air currents alone.

Need to explain Alexander Calder to a kid? Head over to the Tate Kids blog, for a simple and fun introduction..

Was he always an artist?

Calder always enjoyed making art. However, he trained as a mechanical engineer at the Stevens Institute of Technology in his early twenties. He began to pursue painting in earnest a few years after receiving this degree.

He is said to have chosen mechanical engineering arbitrarily, simply because someone he befriended was going to study that subject. Nevertheless he excelled at mathematics, and the experience was later applied to his unique and ingenious artistic approach.

What is he most famous for?

Although not the first person to use metal and movement in his work, Calder became known for his pioneering use of both. In particular he was famous for what Marcel Duchamp christened, ‘mobiles’, and what Jean Arp named ‘stabiles’. Here, Calder explains the difference between the two terms:

Essentially his mobiles moved, often lacking the traditional base or pedestal which would usually anchor a sculpture to the floor. Stabiles were simply sculptures which were stationary and placed on the ground. These were often made on a colossal scale.

How did this come about?

Calder visited Piet Mondrian’s studio in 1930, as described by him here:

His response was to do what Mondrian refused to; make abstract art move.

What was his favourite subject?

Calder loved the circus. In his twenties, whilst working at the National Police Gazette, he was asked to produce a series of illustrations of a circus troupe. As he later described in an interview;

When he moved to Paris in 1926, his interest quickly escalated into the creation of his own miniature Cirque Calder, fashioned from an array of found materials. He would pack this into two suitcases and give performances to his friends. Soon the two suitcases became five, and Calder began to make some modest earnings from the venture. As such, his career as an artist began in a very unusual way.

Was it all just fun and games?

His grandson, Alexander S. C. Rower, would disagree:

What was his favourite drawing material?

Calder always carried wire and pliers with him so that he could “sketch” in his favourite material. This has come to be known as ‘drawing in space’ because he would literally use the wire to create a drawing in the air.

What was his favourite colour?

It was probably red.

What were his thoughts on sculpture?

Calder avoided analysing his work, believing that: “theories may be all very well for the artist himself, but they shouldn’t be broadcast to other people.”

As a result this poem-like text which he wrote for the Abstraction-Création group magazine has often been taken as the closest thing to an explanation of his work:

Which are his key works?

Aside from Cirque Calder, which is universally loved, the following artworks are perhaps his most iconic.

In 1937 the Calder’s became very involved with the Paris World’s Fair, in particular the Spanish Pavilion. Calder offered to exhibit a mobile but initially the architect was against including a non-Spaniard in the show. However when they received a very plain looking fountain, which was to display liquid mercury from Almaden, they decided to call Calder in to create a new one. Calder’s Mercury Fountain was made of irregularly shaped steel plates for the liquid to run over, and also a rod with a red disc attached on one end, and the word ALMADEN written in wire hanging from the other. As the mercury moved through the fountain it would disturb the rod causing the disc and wire to oscillate in the air. The piece was shown alongside Picasso’s Guernica and entertained the audience greatly:

Ignorant of the fact Calder was actually American, André Beucler praised Spain’s accomplishment:

The piece can still be seen at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona,but it is now displayed behind glass due to its high toxicity.

In 1969, Calder’s monumental public artwork, his stabile Le Grande vitesse was installed in the plaza outside City Hall in Grand Rapids Michigan, USA. The title is a tongue-in-cheek French translation of the name ‘Grand Rapids’ which also means ‘Great Speed’.

The artwork has caused great controversy from the word go. When locals discovered the plans there was a hot debate in the local newspapers about whether the project should go forward. Even to this day many people do not appreciate Calder’s vision.

Nevertheless the Plaza has become known as Calder Plaza, and there is an annual arts festival on the artist’s birthday. Le Grande vitesse is even seen on street signs and the city government letterhead, placing the artwork at the heart of the city’s identity.

How did he transport some of his artworks?

Calder developed the idea of dismantling even large sculptures so they could be posted unobtrusively avoiding customs problems. He essentially designed flat pack artworks. He would also send detailed numbered and colour coded instructions along with the piece so that it could be reassembled correctly on the other end.

What do the critics say?