Alexander Calder is one of the most outstanding American artists of the 20th century, and pursued an artistic path from early on when his parents, both artists themselves, set up a workshop for him. However, Alexander Calder first trained as an engineer and expanded his knowledge of mathematics and physics from which he would later also benefit as an artist, as they helped him to find completely new sculptural solutions. He eventually turned to art in 1923, took drawing lessons and soon found wire and metal to be his preferred materials. In 1926, Calder began to work on his legendary "Cirque Calder", a constantly growing collection of mechanical toys made of wire, rubber, leather and wood. Gradually growing to be a complete miniature circus, he initially surprised his friends and soon later also the public. As of 1930, Calder lived in the cultural metropolis of Paris, where his exhibitions were met with great acclaim and he found inspiration in Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp and Piet Mondrian. The former gave Alexander Calder's motor-driven, rattling sculptures the name “Mobiles” and Arp coined the term “Stabiles” for the non-motorized objects only a little later, while Mondrian encouraged the use of color. It showed that colored Mobiles and Stabiles became Calder's signature pieces, the essence of his art. In a final ingenious step, the combination of mobile and stabile led to the so-called “Standing Mobiles” with filigree structures balancing on pedestals.
The individually moving elements offer the viewer an ever-changing abstract composition that follows the laws of gravity but never loses its natural balance. Just a breath of wind is enough to set the lyrical play of movement in motion. Unlike George Rickey, another earlier protagonist of Kinetic Art, Calder incorporates not only form and movement, but also the element of color in his floating compositions, reducing his work to the non-colors black and white, as well as the primary colors blue, yellow and red.
Over the course of his career, Calder created his own fascinating object cosmos that culminates in the present work, which for its concentrated color and form, its delicate movement and its captivating presence, bears the consummate mastery of his late work. Observers can indulge in an impressive interplay of forms created by the movement of the organic abstract forms and likewise by the still moments. [EH]