Untitled
Modern and Contemporary Art

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Untitled
Artwork Details
Artist/Maker
Alexander Calder
American, 1898–1976
American, 1898–1976
Date
1947
Medium
Sheet metal, wire and paint
Accession #
1978.136
Dimensions
96 x 144 inches
Location
Currently Out on Loan
Description
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.
Credit
Gift of Carroll Thompson Sanders in memory of her husband, Professor Walter Benjamin SandersImage Copyright
© Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York