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Alexander Calder was an American artist who created sculptures, prints, paintings, toys, and invented the “mobile”. Calder was born in Lawton, Pennsylvania to a family of artists. His father and grandfather created public sculptures in the city of Philadelphia and his mother worked as a professional portraitist, after studying at the Sorbonne and the Academies Julian in Paris. His parents met in Philadelphia while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Alexander Calder created his earliest known sculpture at the age of four, which took the form of an elephant made out of clay. The same year he modeled for his father’s sculpture, “The Man Club”, which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 1905 when his father contracted tuberculosis, Calder and his sister were sent live with family friends in Arizona. From Arizona the Calder family relocated to Pasadena, California until returning to Philadelphia in 1910. Calder spent his high school years moving from Philadelphia to New York and finally to San Francisco, following his father’s artistic commissions across the country.

In 1915 Calder enrolled at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey to study mechanical engineering. After graduating Calder worked a variety of jobs, including a position as a fireman on a passenger ship that sailed off the coast of Guatemala. After having a series of odd jobs and adventures, Calder decided to move to New York to pursue a career as an artist.

In New York Calder started taking classes at the Art Students League and working for the National Police Gazette. In 1925 Calder covered a story on the circus, which later served as an inspiration in his work. Calder decided to develop his own circus out of found objects, wire, rubber, string and cloth, while living in Paris. The “Cirque Calder” was designed to fit into suitcases so that it would be transportable. In 1927 Calder returned to the United States and started to make toys, kinetic sculptures and wire sculptures. As Calder’s reputation grew he began to exhibit in both the United States and France.

In the 1930s Calder concentrated less on making toys and more formal sculptures. His sculptures took the form of kinetic “mobiles” and stationary “stabiles”. Calder’s most mature work took on a monumental scale, fulfilling commissions for UNESCO, the World Trade Center, the Montreal Universal Exhibition and the Olympic games in Mexico City. In addition to traditional sculpture, Calder designed paintings for planes and the BMW art car series. While working on intensive sculpture projects, Calder continued to make small gouache paintings and mobiles, which he often gifted to his friends.

Calder’s work has reached far and wide, filling urban public spaces and private museum collections. Calder is known internationally for his innovative and playful work. Do you think you own a piece by Alexander Calder? Contact us. We are the Calder experts.