Alexander Calder 1898 – 1976: American Abstract Kinetic Artist

"Why must art be static?”

Static means to be still - Alexander Calder thought it would be great

if sculptures could also move.

Alexander Calder was a very imaginative and creative person. He

liked sculpture but he thought sculpture should also move and not
only be still.

"I think best in wire." Said Alexander Calder

- Alexander Calder, from Calder's Universe, 1976.

He liked to use wire to make a drawing 3 dimensional. Therefore he

would make a drawing first and then make those flat shapes into
something that was 3 dimensional.

Aztec Josephine Baker, ca. 1929

wire
53 x 10 x 9 in.
134.6 x 25.4 x 22.9 cm
Private Collection
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Here is an example of something Alexander Calder drew and then made 3

dimensional by making his drawing out of wire. This is Josephine Baker was a
well known dancer at the time. He made this to show that what she did well
was dance so her portrait has to move. This is also an example of the wire
portraits that he made. This portrait was able to move when blown by the
wind which made it graceful and free like Josephine was as she danced.
A portrait is a picture, painting or sculpture of a person.
First lesson on Wire Mobiles and stabiles by
Alexander Calder

1. Draw a stick figure of yourself:

A) You need to give yourself a circle for your head
– you can also give yourself hair.
B) You need to draw a line down for your body.
C)On to this you need to add arms and legs
D) Think about what characteristics are needed to
make the stick figure look like you. Do you wear
glasses; is your hair long or short? Do you have
a round tummy? Or are you very thin? Is your
hair spiky and short or long and curly?
E) Think about your personality what do you like to
do? So you like to swim, run, play football,
dance. Think of a movement that you like to
participate in and include that in your drawing.
F) If you want you can draw someone else that you
like.

After we have made out drawing we are going to make our

stick person into a mobile that can be hung up like
Josephine Baker the dancer.

Just like the cat we made we will make each part of the
mobile in wire. Then we will hang up the mobile and make
a display.
Alexander Calder also loved the circus because he was interested in
movement and he liked the acrobats and the dancers in the circus. He made
many children’s toys that had moving parts and he invented the idea of
mobiles which are moving sculptures. He later made stabiles which were still
sculptures.

‘Mobile’ in French means ‘to move’ and ‘motive’. Motive means the reason
behind something.

Object with Red Ball, 1931

wood, sheet metal, wire, and paint
61 1/4 x 38 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
155.6 x 97.8 x 31.1 cm
Private Collection
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

This is an example of Alexander Calder’s Mobile Object with a Red

Ball.

Two Spheres Within a Sphere, 1931

wire, wood, and paint
37 1/2 x 32 x 14 in.
95.3 x 81.3 x 35.6 cm
Private Collection
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This is an example of one of Alexander Calder’s Mobiles Two
Spheres within a Sphere.
A sphere is another name for a circle.

Exhibition announcement for Calder: ses mobiles

Pantograph, 1931
wood, wire, sheet metal, motor, and paint
35 7/16 x 44 1/2 x 22 1/16 in.
90 x 113 x 56 cm
Moderna Museet, Stockholm © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York
Wind Driven Sculptures

"I used to begin with fairly complete drawings, but now I start by
cutting out a lot of shapes.... Some I keep because they're pleasing
or dynamic. Some are bits I just happen to find. Then I arrange
them, like papier collé, on a table, and "paint" them -- that is,
arrange them, with wires between the pieces if it's to be a mobile,
for the overall pattern. Finally I cut some more of them with my
shears, calculating for balance this time."

- Alexander Calder on building a mobile, from Calder's Universe,

1976.

Cône d'ébène, 1933

ebony, wire, and metal bar
106 x 55 x 24 in.
269.2 x 139.7 x 61 cm
Private Collection, New York
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York

Steel Fish, 1934

sheet metal, wire, rod, lead, and paint
115 x 137 x 120 in.
292.1 x 348 x 304.8 cm
Private Collection
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York

Instructions for second lesson on

Alexander Calder and Mobiles

1. Taking pencil for a walk to make abstract

flat shapes on the page.
2. Just draw lines across your page in curly
swirly shapes. You could explore shapes
for one element: fire, water, earth, air.
3. Cut out as many of the shapes as you like
from the cardboard.
4. Make holes in your shape so it can be hung.
Decide which way it is going to hang.
5. Colour some of your more interesting
shapes.
6. Paint some of your shapes.
7. Stick coloured paper onto other shapes.
8. When you have coloured your shapes you
can arrange them in a pattern that you
would like to hang them in.
9. Put all your shapes on your tray to dry and
name it.
Steel Fish, 1934, at Roxbury, Connecticut
Photograph by Herbert Matter, ca. 1938
Courtesy The Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, New York

Calder expanded his ideas further by building large-scale mobiles

for the outdoors. In August 1933, he moved to an eighteenth-
century farm in Roxbury, Connecticut in order to make his large
scale sculptures. In 1934, Calder built several large mobiles "for the
open air," which were meant to "react to the wind." Steel Fish
(1934), for example. This mobile had a system of weights and
balances, and depended on the strength of the wind to arrange or
rearrange its composition.

By the late 1930s, Calder and his work was a very important part of
twentieth-century art. As well as being the inventor of wire sculpture
and the mobile, he was one of the first modern artists to create
monumental work for public spaces. In a career that stretched to his
death in 1976, Calder became one of the best-loved and widely
appreciated American artists of all time.

Aluminum Leaves, Red Post, 1941

sheet metal, wire, and paint
61 x 61 in.
154.9 x 154.9 cm
Collection of Jean Lipman
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

S-Shaped Vine, 1946

sheet metal, wire, and paint
98 1/2 x 69 in.
250.2 x 175.3 cm
Collection of Rita and Toby Schreiber
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Southern Cross, 1963

sheet metal, rod, bolts, and paint
243 x 324 x 211 in.
617.2 x 823 x 535.9 cm
Private Collection, New York
© 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Teodelapio, 1962
Photograph taken in Spoleto, Italy, 1962
Courtesy The Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, New York
3 Dimensional shapes for mobiles.

1. Paint the other side of your shapes if you

haven’t already done so.
2. Using the stencils of the cubes, cuboids,
pyramids, draw around them and then cut
them out.
3. Make a hole in your shape once you have
decided how you would like to hang it.
4. Stick them together so that you have made
a 3- dimensional shape.
5. Make sure you can hang them with the
string. First make a knot in the string and
thread it through the hole in the shape.
6. Paint them on the outside.
7. Leave them to dry on your tray with your
other shapes. Name your tray.
Hanging your Mobile

1. Lay your shapes out on the table so that

you can decide how you would like your
mobile to look.
2. Make sure you have put string or wire
through each shape so that it can hang or
3. Now attach the string or wire to the wooden
sticks so that the objects either hang or
stick out making your mobile sculpture.
Constellations:
The Series (1941-1943)

Alexander Calder, Vertical Constellation with Bomb, 1943, painted steel wire,
painted wood, and wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr. and
Mrs. Klaus G. Perls 1996.120.8

Alexander Calder invented mobiles, sculpture that moved, in the early 1930s.
Later, he added large-scale stabiles, fixed sculpture. During World War II,
Calder created the Constellations series. The pieces are motionless, like
stabiles, yet airy, like mobiles.
Three dimensional shapes.

We are now going to look at making some

familiar 3 Dimensional shapes. Can you name
some of them?

Cube Pyramid Cuboids Star Sphere

Instructions:

1) Using the template draw around the templates

for each shape.
2) Using all the shapes as many times as you like
and the different sizes too.
3) Cut around the shape and glue it together to
make your 3 dimensional shapes.
4) Now you can paint the shape and decorate it.
5) Once we have finished all our shapes we can
arrange them on the table and decide how we
are going to hang our mobile.