Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) American Designer & Artist

Derriere Le Miroir No. 141, Plates 1 & 2 1963 by Alexander Calder
Derriere Le Miroir No. 141, Plates 1 & 2 1963 by Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) was an American sculptor, painter and designer. He was the son of sculptor Alexander Sterling Calder and was born in Philadelphia.

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.

Alexander Calder on 1stDibs

Click on image for more information

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL

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    Alma Eikerman (1908 – 1995) was an American jewellery designer and silversmith. Eikerman was born in Pratt, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State College in Emporia with a B.Sc. in 1934 and an M.Sc. in 1942. Read More →

  • Egmont Arens (1888 – 1966) American Industrial Designer

    Egmont Arens (1888 – 1966) American Industrial Designer

    In 1935 he founded his own design company. He designed everything from toys, boats, aircraft, kitchen appliances, lamps and lampshades, beer cans, plastic containers, cigarette lighters, jukeboxes, watches and baby carriages.Read More →

  • Hattie Carnegie (1886 – 1956) American Clothing Designer, Jeweller

    Hattie Carnegie (1886 – 1956) American Clothing Designer, Jeweller

    Her family settled in the USA when she was in her teens and took the Carnegie name. In 1909, with a friend, she opened a tiny dress and hat shop, New York, known as Carnegie—Ladies’ Hatter.Read More →

  • George Nakashima (1905 – 1990) American woodworker and designer

    George Nakashima (1905 – 1990) American woodworker and designer

    In 1934, he worked in the Indian office of American architect Antonin Raymond. In 1937, in the Tokyo office, he studied Japanese carpentry techniques. In 1941, he set up his first workshop in Seattle. In 1942 in Idaho, Nakashima studied with an old Japanese carpenter until Antonin Raymond arranged his release. Read More →

  • Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 – 1915) American furniture designer

    Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 – 1915) American furniture designer

    Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 – 1915) was an American furniture designer. Hubbard met William Morris in 1894 and the following year inspired by Morris’s Kelmscott Press, founded the Raycroft Press’ East Aurora, near Buffalo, New York. He was the founder of the Roycrofters, an Arts and Crafts community; he organized workshops, lectured, and wrote as…

  • Frank Nuovo (b.1961) Chief Designer for Nokia

    Frank Nuovo (b.1961) Chief Designer for Nokia

    Nuovo studied product and automotive design and graphics and communications design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.Read More →

  • Faience Manufacturing Company – the heart of American ceramics

    Faience Manufacturing Company – the heart of American ceramics

    The Faience Manufacturing Company was an American manufacturing company that operated between 1880 – 1892 in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, New York. There is little evidence of the remains of the Company as it failed in 1892.Read More →

  • Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) American sculptor and designer.

    Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) American sculptor and designer.

    Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988), was an American sculptor and designer. He was born in Los Angeles and professionally active in New York. He was influential and well-received in the twentieth century. He produced sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, and set designs throughout his lifetime of creative experimentation. His work, both subtle and bold,…

  • Ulrich Franzen (1921 – 2012) German-born American architect and designer

    Ulrich Franzen (1921 – 2012) German-born American architect and designer

    Ulrich Franzen, the German-born American architect, was a leading figure in the first post-war generation of American architects; including Paul Rudolph, Harry Cobb, John Maclane Johansen, and Philip Johnson. Read More →

  • Geoffrey Beene (1927-2004) an American Fashion Designer

    Geoffrey Beene (1927-2004) an American Fashion Designer

    Geoffrey Beene (1927 – 2004) was an American fashion designer; born Haynesville, Louisiana. He was a premed student at Tulane University when he found himself sketching gowns when he became bored during his lectures. Along with Bill Blass, he was regarded as the Godfather of American sportswear. Read More →

  • Raymond Loewy (1893 – 1986) 🇺🇸 American Designer

    Raymond Loewy (1893 – 1986) 🇺🇸  American Designer

    He arrived in the United States in 1929, just in time for the great depression. As it happened the beginning of the depression was a fortuitous time for a talented designer with new ideas to arrive in the United States. The old design aesthetic was disappearing with the collapsing economy. Manufacturers wanted to stimulate demand…

  • Angelo Testa (1921 – 1984) American fabric designer

    Angelo Testa (1921 – 1984) American fabric designer

    Angelo Testa (1921 – 1984) was an American fabric designer. He studied at the Institute of Design, Chicago, to 1945. As well as being a fabric designer, he was a painter and sculptor. He designed the 1941 Little Man abstract floral fabric, widely published and hailed as a new direction in textile design. It all…

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