Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calderwas an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of moving sculpture made with delicately balanced or suspended shapes that move in response to touch or air currents. Calder’s monumental stationary sculptures are called stabiles. He also produced wire figures, which are like drawings made in space, and notably a miniature circus work that was performed by the artist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth22 July 1898
CityLawnton, PA
CountryUnited States of America
You see nature and then you try to emulate it.
I have been making wire jewelry - and think I'll really do something with it, eventually.
The simplest forms in the universe are the sphere and the circle. I represent them by disks and then I vary them... spheres of different sizes, densities, colours and volumes, floating in space, traversing clouds, sprays of water, currents of air, viscosities and odours - of the greatest variety and disparity.
The next step in sculpture is motion.
That others grasp what I have in mind seems unessential, at least as long as they have something else in theirs.
The basis of everything I do is the universe.
The first inspiration I ever had was the cosmos, the planetary system.
My fingers always seem busier than my mind.
When an artist explains what he is doing, he usually has to do one of two things: either scrap what he has explained, or make his work fit in with the explanation.
The sense of motion in painting and sculpture has long been considered as one of the primary elements of the composition.
The trouble with a lot of artists today is that they have too much technique and equipment. They don't know what to do with it all. If you cut down on it, you can work more strongly within narrower limits.
About my method of work: first it’s the state of mind—Elation (joy).
My whole theory about art is the disparity that exists between form, masses and movement.
Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion.