Alexander Calder
Biography
Having grown up in an artistic environment, Alexander Calder decided to train as an engineer, which he completed with a diploma in 1919. In 1923, he joined the New York Art Students League, where he took drawing lessons. He worked as a press illustrator for the National Police Gazette.
In 1925 Calder's interest in the circus began. Fascinated by this world, he realized that he had found his motif and subject here. He produced drawings, which he showed together with paintings in his first exhibition (The Artists Gallery, New York) in 1926. Calder quickly began to transform his drawings into wire sculptures, thus taking the decisive step necessary for his further artistic development. In 1927, Calder appeared in public with animals made of iron wire and bottle corks and caused a sensation with these mechanical toys, which gradually developed into a complete miniature circuSolo Exhibitions (Selection)
In 1930, the artist went to Paris, where Marcel Duchamp and Hans Arp were staying.Duchamp gave Alexander Calder's motor-driven sculptures the name “Mobiles”, while Arp coined the term “Stabiles” for the motionless objects.Calder settled in the USA in 1934. At the end of the 1930s, in addition to numerous mobiles and stabiles, he also created monumental sculptures made of heavy metal plates.
1946 saw the first of many post-war trips to France, where he settled again in 1954.In 1964/65, a retrospective was held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris.In addition, Calder repeatedly created stage sets, especially for theaters in Paris.He received numerous prizes, including the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale and the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh.
Exhibition
Museum and single exhibitions (selection)
2024
Alexander Calder: Sculpting Time, Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI Lugano), Lugano, Switzerland
2023
Alexander Calder: Set Modern Art in Motion, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, United States
2022
Alexander Calder - Intricate: Calder and the Poetry of Science, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL, United States
2021
Alexander Calder. Minimal / Maximal, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
Alexander Calder - Modern from the Start, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States
Calder: Great Yellow Sun, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Elemental Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
2019
Calder Stories, Fundación Marcelino Botín, Santander, Spain
Elemental Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
2017
Alexander Calder Scaling Up, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA),
San Francisco, CA, United States
Calder: Hypermobility, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, United States
Alexander Calder - Motion Lab, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
¡Vaya Circo!, Centre Pompidou Malaga, Málaga, Spain
2015
Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2014
Calder: Twelve Works, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, NC, United States
Collecting Calder, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, United States
Calder at the Rijksmuseum, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hommage à Alexander Calder a l'occasion du 50ème anniversaire de la Fondation Maeght, Musee d´Art Moderne et d`Art Contemporain Nice (MAMAC), Nice, France
2013
Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, United States
Alexander Calder – Avantgarde in Bewegung, K20, Dusseldorf, Germany
Calder, Leeum - Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
In the Library, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States
2012
Alexander Calder, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
2011
Calder's Portraits: A New Language, The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC,
United States
2010
Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX, United States
2009
Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, United States
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1926–1933, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
Calder Jewellery, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland (Republic)
Alexander Calder, Les années parisiennes, 1926-1933, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2008
Calder Jewelry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, United States
2007
Focus: Alexander Calder, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States
Alexander Calder in Focus, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL, United States
2006
I Think Best in Wire: Alexander Calder, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, United States
The Surreal Calder, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN, United States
The Surreal Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
2005
The Surreal Calder, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, United States
Uitgelicht - Alexander Calder, Stedelijk Museum ’s-Hertogenbosch's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2003
Calder. La gravedad y la gracia, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Calder - La gravedad y la gracia, Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo, Bilbao, Spain
2002
Alexander Calder - Motion and Color, The Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan
2001
Alexander Calder - Motion and Color, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura, Chiba, Japan
1999
Alexander Calder, Lever House Art Collection, New York City, NY, United States
1998
Alexander Calder: 1898 – 1976, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
Alexander Calder 1898 – 1976, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States
1997
Calder, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain
1996
Alexander Calder, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1993
Celebrating Calder, Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju Bomun, South Korea
Alexander Calder in den Fotografien von Ugo Mulas, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
1979
Calder’s Universe, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, United States
1976
Alexander Calder: 1898-1976, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY,
United States
Calder's universe, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, United States
1975
Alexander Calder, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Alexander Calder, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
1974
Alexander Calder - A Retrospective Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), Chicago, IL, United States
Calder's Circus, Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), Indianapolis, IN, United States
Calder Musée des Beaux-Arts de Limoges – Palais de l’Evêché, Limoges, France
1972
Calder Tapestries, Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), Indianapolis, IN, United States
1971
Alexander Calder. Early Works c. 1927-1944, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH, United States
Alexander Calder: Tapestries, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY, United States
1970
A Salute to Alexander Calder Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO), Bogota, Colombia
Calder Gouaches: The Art of Alexander Calder, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ,
United States
1969
A Salute to Alexander Calder, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY,
United States
Calder, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Calder, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Calder, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France
1967
Alexander Calder, AdK - Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz, Berlin, Germany
Recent Stabiles by Alexander Calder, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, United States
Calder: 19 Gifts from the Artist, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States
1965
Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, United States
Mobiles and Stabiles by Calder, the Man Who Made Sculpture Move, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada
1964
Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York City, NY, United States
1962
Alexander Calder, Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom
1960
Alexander Calder, Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, Belgium
1959
Alexander Calder, Stabilen, Mobilen, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Alexander Calder: escultura, guache, Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro (MAM), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Calder: Stabiles 1957-59, Mobiles 1956-58, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Alexander Calder, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Alexander Calder, Stabilen, Mobilen, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1957
Alexander Calder, Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Alexander Calder, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
1956
Children's Holiday Carnival, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States
Alexandre Calder, Musée Picasso - Château Grimaldi, Antibes, France
1954
Alexander Calder: Stabiles, Mobiles, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany
1953
Mobiles by Alexander Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA),
San Francisco, CA, United States
Alexander Calder, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
1952
Alexander Calder, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck, Germany
1950
Alexander Calder, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1947
Sculpture and Gouaches by Alexander Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
1944
Watercolors by Alexander Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
1943
Alexander Calder, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, NY, United States
1941
Mobiles by Alexander Calder, Stabiles and Jewelry, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, United States
1935
Mobiles by Alexander Calder, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
Alexander Calder – Mobiles, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL, United States
1930
Wire Sculpture by Alexander Calder, Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, Cambridge, MA, United States