Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) American Designer & Artist

Education

1915–18, studied art at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey; 1923–25, painting at the Art Students’ League in New York and under Boardman Robinson; 1926–27, art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris.

Biography

He worked as an engineer in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1919, and as a draftsperson and engineer in West Coast logging camps from 1919 to 23; from 1923 to 1930, he was active in New York, sketching for the National Police Gazette 1925—26; in 1926, he travelled to England and Paris, where he produced his 1927—28 miniature circus and worked on wood sculpture; was best known for his mobiles,’ hanging sculptures whose amorphic and bio His linear, wiry images were most likely influenced by Joan Miro and Paul Klee. He worked on stage designs, graphics, jewellery, and hand-made household objects in 1969 and designing porcelains for Sevres and aeroplane fuselage motifs for Braniff Airlines. He also worked on stage designs, graphics, jewellery, and hand-made household objects and painted exclusively black, red, yellow, and white in his fine art.

Exhibitions

His art was first presented in 1928 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York, and it has since been the focus of over 180 exhibitions. At the 1937 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne,’ a quick-silver fountain was displayed alongside Picasso’s Guernica and a work by Joan Miro at the Spanish Pavillion. In 1989—90, an international travelling exhibition of his utilitarian products was mounted.