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Alexander Calder

Sculptors

Alexander Calder was an American sculptor best known for inventing the mobile, a suspended sculpture of delicately balanced, wire-connected shapes that move and rearrange themselves in response to air currents and touch, a term coined for his work by fellow artist Marcel Duchamp. Trained originally as a mechanical engineer, Calder brought that technical sensibility to sculpture, and he also produced large stationary abstract works he called stabiles, monumental painted steel forms installed in public spaces around the world. His introduction of actual motion and unpredictability into sculpture was a significant departure from the static tradition and opened a new direction later explored by kinetic art.

Facts
Birth Year
1898 1
Death Year
1976 1
Nationality
American 1
Birth Date
1898-07-22 1
Death Date
1976-11-11 1
Birthplace
Lawnton, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States 1
Training
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey (enrolled 1915) 1
Classification
Gender
Male 1
Connections

Practices

Sculpture, Art Forms
Source Alexander Calder, Wikipedia
In the Other Atlases

Nationality

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Source Alexander Calder, WikipediaLead sentence 1
Quote, Lead sentence 1
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, his static "stabiles", and his monumental public sculptures.

Originated In

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source Alexander Calder, Wikipedia
Sources
1. Alexander Calder, Wikipedia
  • Lead, first sentence
    was an American sculptor known both for his innovative
  • Early life, birth sentence, year
    Calder was born in 1898 in the Lawnton section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • Early life, birth sentence, place
    Calder was born in 1898 in the Lawnton section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • Lead, birth date in parentheses
    July 22, 1898
  • Later life, death sentence, year
    Calder died unexpectedly in November 1976 of a heart attack, shortly after the opening of a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York.
  • Lead, death date in parentheses
    November 11, 1976
  • Early life, paragraph on his college education
    He enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1915.
  • Lead section
    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, his static "stabiles", and his monumental public sculptures.
  • In Group: Modernist Sculptors, Lead
    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, his static "stabiles", and his monumental public sculptures.
View the Source
Wikidata: Alexander Calder
Wikidata Q151580, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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