Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976)

The American artist Alexander Calder came from a family of artists, but studied mechanical engineering at college, and to begin with worked in a variety of engineering jobs. In the 1920s Calder determined to become an artist, moving first to New York, then to Paris in 1926, where he established his studio in Montparnasse. A commission to make children’s toys led to three-dimensional experiments with cloth, wire, string, rubber, and other found objects. He created his own portable ‘circus’, and his improvised performances became popular with the Parisian Avant-Garde.

Back in te States in 1927 he developed is push-and-pull toys commercially; by 1930, following exposure to the work of Mondrian, he fully embraced abstraction, and began to produce the kinetic sculptures, or ‘mobiles’, for which he is best known. His work is in major collections across the world, and the Whitney Museum in New York contains many of his finest pieces.