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What work did Alexander Calder do?
Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, and static “stabiles” monumental public sculptures.
What was Alexander Calder best known for?
Sculpture.
What materials did Calder use?
Calder’s engineering background came in handy as he experimented with different materials to balance and build his mobiles. His use of industrial materials—steel, aluminum, and wire—was new. When Calder’s mobiles move with the breeze, they change shape and cast interesting shadows.
What mediums did Alexander Calder use?
Sculpture.
Who invented wire sculptures?
The use of metal wire in jewelry dates back to the 2nd Dynasty in Egypt and to the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe. In the 20th century, the works of Alexander Calder, Ruth Asawa, and other modern practitioners developed the medium of wire sculpture as an art form.
How many sculptures did Calder make?
Calder died in 1976 at age 78, weeks after the opening of a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In the 21st century the Alexander Calder Foundation documented his output at more than 22,000 works.
Who came up with the name mobile?
The meaning of the term “mobile” as applied to sculpture has evolved since it was first suggested by Marcel Duchamp in 1931 to describe the early, mechanized creations of Alexander Calder.
What are 3 facts about Alexander Calder?
10 Things to Know About Alexander Calder He is known for ‘drawing in space’ He was a mechanical engineer turned sculptor. He was always drawn to the circus. He was inspired by meeting Mondrian. The War Years altered the materials he used for his sculptures. He has had multiple giant structures displayed across the globe.
Who coined the French term mobile?
Calder was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. His mobile, International Mobile was the centerpiece of the exhibition.
What did Alexander Calder use to make his sculptures?
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.
How does Calder create unity in his mobiles?
How did Alexander Calder use the elements of art and principles of design in his sculptures? They have repeated shapes and colors that create unity. They have contrasting shapes and colors.
What did Calder call his works created from found objects?
American artist Alexander Calder redefined sculpture by introducing the element of movement, first through performances of his mechanical Calder’s Circus and later with motorized works, and, finally, with hanging works called “mobiles.” In addition to his abstract mobiles, Calder also created static sculptures, called Sep 1, 2012.
What are some of the main materials Calder used in his sculptures mobiles?
Made from sheet steel, bolted together and brightly painted, these works wrecked his critical reputation and bloated his bank balance. Around 100 of Calder’s early wire works and mobiles will be exhibited at Tate Modern next month.
What was the first media that Calder first worked with?
Calder soon began to sculpt from wire many portraits of his friends and public figures of the day (fig. 9). Word traveled about the inventive artist, and in 1928 Calder was given his first solo gallery show at the Weyhe Gallery in New York.
What techniques do artists use to convey perspective in their work psychology?
Linear perspective is a technique used by artists to create the illusion of depth and space using relative size and position of a group of objects. To achieve this effect, there are three essential components needed in creating a painting or drawing using linear perspective: Orthogonals (also known as parallel lines)Aug 7, 2019.
Who is Rachel Ducker?
Originally trained as a jeweler, Rachel Ducker’s fascination and love for working with metal, led to her experiment with wire as a medium for sculpting the human form. Accomplished in life drawing, her sculptured wire figures concentrate on the expressive & emotional dynamics of human nature.
Who is Elizabeth Berrien?
Elizabeth Berrien, ranked among the world’s finest wire sculptors, creates intricately expressive, museum quality wire sculptures of cats, equines, wildlife, humans and botanicals She is founder of Wire Sculpture International, the worldwide guild of wire sculptors.
What kind of art is wire sculpture?
Wire sculpture art is a form of three-dimensional art made by bending, twisting, and shaping wire. Artists who’ve worked with wire include Alexander Calder and Elizabeth Berrien.
How many red wool shirts did Calder own?
He did not own a suit and had two red wool shirts, which he wore to all occasions. He was completely uninterested in talking about art or what critics had to say. He even called his works “objects” so that he couldn’t be drawn into arguments about whether they were art.
What is the meaning of Calder?
The name Calder is primarily a male name of Scottish origin that means From The Wild Water. Placename.
Is Alexander Calder’s mobile valuable?
Based upon that, a fair auction value, the range is somewhere between $400,000 and $600,000.
Why are they called mobiles?
The term “mobile”, a French pun meaning both “mobile” and “motive”, was coined by the master inventor of Dada, Marcel Duchamp, while visiting Calder’s studio in 1931, although he apparently already used the term in 1913 for his readymade Bicycle Wheel, which some consider to be the first kinetic sculpture.
Why is it called a baby mobile?
mobile Add to list Share. A mobile is something you hang over a crib to entertain the baby, or a scale model of the universe. In 1940, the word mobile was first used to refer to a house that could be easily moved — a mobile home.
What does mobiles mean in English?
capable of moving or being moved readily. Digital Technology. pertaining to or noting a cell phone, usually one with computing ability, or a portable, wireless computing device used while held in the hand, as in mobile tablet; mobile PDA; mobile app. utilizing motor vehicles for ready movement: a mobile library.
Did Calder invent mobile?
Alexander Calder, born 113 years ago in 1898, may not have invented the baby mobile, but his large sculptures, dubbed mobile art because of the use of moving parts and wires, were the inspiration for the genre.
What was Calder obsessed with?
1923 found Calder in New York. He found work by painting, drawing and illustrating for newspapers and magazines. He became obsessed with the circus, which he visited frequently. This obsession would last for the rest of his life.
