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Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Calder, age 39, dancing with
his children
while Louise, his wife, plays accordian.
The following essay about Calder is from the brochure from the Cooper-Hewitt show The Intimate World of Alexander Calder.
Above all, I feel art should be happy...
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder's exuberance, his imagination and ingenuity made him the epitome of the artist-designer whose creativity spilled into all facets of his life. Artist, engineer, designer, he was always experimenting and tinkering: adjusting a door latch, twisting wire into a pin, a toy, or a tea strainer. Distinction between "art" and "daily objects" were unimportant to Calder; he considered everything he made his "work".
Even in childhood, Calder's play bore the mark of his genius. He delighted in creating fanciful gifts for his family and friends, and he
was fascinated by clever gadgetry. According to his sister, "His bedroom was a maze of strings: they pulled up the shades and lowered them, pulled the casement windows closed, turned the lights on and off." He received a degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey in 1919 with the intention of practicing engineering, but Calder was the grandson and son of sculptors, as well as the son of a portrait painter, and before long he began incorporating his mechanical and engineering expertise into novel artistic productions.
Calder's enthusiasm was boundless. He designed and made a metal latch - to keep the family's cat from raiding the kitchen cabinets - with the same zest he tackled a monumental outdoor sculpture. Using whatever caught his eye, and whatever came to hand - wood, bronze, wire, sheet metal, shards of brightly colored glass, bits of cloth, tin cans, corks, clothespins - he fashioned all manner of useful and decorative devices. He gave Chinese teacups wire handles; he made a table bell from a broken wineglass, and using a film canister for a head, and beer cans for rollers, he made "Kodak Horse for Willy".
Although Calder is best known as a dominant figure in twentieth-century sculpture, it is in his small, whimsical creations - wire figures, cigar-box cars, mobile earrings, illustrated letters and cards - that we come full face with his humor, his spontaneity, and with his originality. It is in this more intimate world, the world of Calder the family man and friend, that we witness the sculptor doing what he did so well - working in the guise of play.
And, you should know you can visit a huge Calder in Hartford CT at the Alfred E. Burr Mall next to the Wadsworth Atheneum. (You know the Atheneum is free on Saturday morning and the parking on the street is too then but double check!) The huge stabile is titled Stegosaurus.
Coming to the Wadsworth Atheneum!!! Calder & Connecticut April 14-August 6, 2000
The American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) settled in Roxbury, Connecticut in
1933, and lived and worked in this state for the rest of his life. It was at the Wadsworth
Atheneum that he first showed his revolutionary "mobile" sculptures, some of the most
imaginative, playful, and now-familiar forms of 20th-century art. He was closely
associated with the Wadsworth for decades, and on many occasions showed his diverse
talents here, even designing a theatrical set and designing fanciful animal costumes for a
masquerade ball. This exhibition includes sculpture, paintings, jewelry and prints-made at
his Connecticut home or in the local foundries-as well as photographs, films, drawings
and letters that enliven the rich history of this important artist.
Browse images of works in the Atheneum's collection.
National Gallery of Art
La Vache
1970
sheet metal
height: 34 1/8 in.Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
© 1997 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 1991.7.10
Crinkly Worm,
1971
sheet metal,
height: 18 1/8 in.Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
© 1997 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 1991.7.10
to the National Gallery
of Artto the Sheldon Memorial
Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Snake on Arch
1943-44, bronze
44 by 28 by 18 in.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,F. M. Hall Collection
1945.H-258
to a big picture of a print of Calder's and an enlargement of his signature. By the way, the numbers under the signature are the edition. It is the 69th print in an edition of 100 the numbers say.
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