 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
NEW-YORK |
LONDON |
HONG-KONG |
MIAMI |
 |
|
|
|
LONDON |
|
|
|
|
|
CALDER Alexandre
Alexandre CALDER (1898 – 1976)
The Calder circus was a popular event in the 1930’s in Paris. Cocteau, Mondrian, Man Ray and Léger would rush to Calder’s studio in Philadelphia to admire the shows, the tiny wire performers walking the tightropes, the materials and wood used by Calder, punctuated by the sounds of his phonograph. Calder would work his tiny circus members as a true ringmaster, with wild cats, acrobats, trumpet players and kangaroos!
As of 1931, Calder joined the group “Abstraction Creation” and started bringing colored sketches to life.
In 1932, Marcel Duchamp visited his studio and was much taken by such surprising hand-crafted work in motion. The “mobile” was born…
The “sculptor of motion” would also paint with the same light touch, the same grace and cold hues (yellow, red, blue and black), a constant throughout his works.
Alexandre Calder, a trained engineer, would do well in various hand-crafted endeavors, from his iron wire sculptures to the re-production of a miniature circus, without forgetting the invention of the model and the larger than life “stabile”.
Calder’s works are highly sought after additions to any collection: mainly since they remain accessible and curiously ethereal, lending them a mysterious and poetic quality. Alexandre Calder and his mobiles are an integral part of the history of the Art market as we know it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sculptor, painter, illustrator, printmaker and designer, son of (2) Alexander Stirling Calder. He graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1919. In 1923 he enrolled at the Art Students League in New York, where he was inspired by his teacher, John Sloan, to produce oil paintings. He became a freelance artist for the National Police Gazette in 1924, sketching sporting events and circus performances. His first illustrated book, Animal Sketching (New York, 1926), was based on studies made at the Bronx and Central Park Zoos in New York. The illustrations are brush and ink studies of animals in motion, with an accompanying text by the artist.
|