Alexander (Sandy) Calder (1898-1976)
Alexander Calder was born in Pennsylvania to a family of famous artists, his grandfather being Alexander Milne Calder (1846 to 1923), a sculptor, his father was Alexander Stirling Calder (1870 to 1945), also a sculptor, and his mother Nanette Lederer Calder was a painter.
He began his studies in 1914 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, then he studied and worked in Paris for several years along with figures such as Mondrian and Marcel Duchamp, where he eventually found his calling in sculpture.
Calder began creating his own works at an early age. He explored several mediums early on, but found that sculpting with wire and metal to be his preferred form of expression. In the fall of 1931, a significant turning point in Calder’s artistic career occurred when he created his first truly kinetic sculpture. The first of these objects moved by systems of crank and motors, and were dubbed ‘mobiles’ by Marcel Duchamp (but) Calder soon abandoned the mechanical aspects of these works when he realized that he could fashion mobiles that would undulate on their own with the air’s currents.
Calder achieved much success in his early career, his work being shown at galleries in Paris and Berlin as well as in New York. This called for several transatlantic crossings and it was on one of these trips that Calder met his wife Louisa. They were married in 1931. In 1933, they purchased a farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised two daughters.
Calder concentrated on more monumental sculptures during the 1950′s and wrote his autobiography in 1966. He worked in many other mediums including watercolor, mixed media, gouache, jewelry and textile design. He passed away on November 11, 1976, shortly following the opening of a major show at the Whitney Museum. Calder’s works are extremely desirable today.
Information courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions, October 2006.
Alexander Calder, one of the giants of American 20th century art, explored the themes of colored orbs in space throughout his career, especially in his textbook mobile constructions. He was an American sculptor, painter, and designer. Calder graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919 with a degree in mechanical engineering. After taking classes at the Arts Student’s League, he became a freelance artist and illustrator, and published a book titled Animal Sketching. In the 20s, Calder began traveling to Paris, becoming influenced by the work of Klee and Miro. In 1930, after visiting Piet Mondrian’s studio, he began to create abstract constructions incorporating biomorphic forms, specifically with variations on the mobile, which he is most known for. Calder divided his time between trips abroad, and his farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, and as his commissions grew more frequent, his mobiles became increasingly gigantic. Examples are Flamingo, the stabile at Federal Center Plaza in Chicago, and La Defense, at the Rond Point de La Defense Metro station in Paris.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, May 2008