Details

Title

Untitled

Artist/Maker

Alexander Calder (American, 1898–1976)

Date

1947

Medium

Sheet metal, wire and paint

Dimensions

96 x 144 inches

Credit

Gift of Carroll Thompson Sanders in memory of her husband, Professor Walter Benjamin Sanders

Accession #

1978.136

On View

Currently not on view

Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote that a Calder mobile is a “piece of poetry that dances with the joy of life.” In the early twentieth century Calder’s mobiles provided a dynamic, new experience of sculpture that incorporated movement, activating their architectural settings and inviting viewers’ engagement. Freed from the traditional pedestal, the mobile—a type of kinetic sculpture innovated by Calder and named by the artist Marcel Duchamp—reflects Calder’s training as an engineer and his interest in astronomy. Viewers may find themselves comparing the elegantly suspended circulating spheres to the planets or stars.

Image Copyright

© Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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