• Alexander Calder



  • Petit poteau jaune (Little Yellow Post)
    1963, Sheet metal, rod, wire and paint, 30,5 x 38 x 17,8 cm
  • The Clove
    ca. 1936, painted steel, 21,6 x 17,8 x 17,2 cm
  • The Red Crescent
    1969, sheets, bars and paint, 60 x 225 x 66 cm
  • Crag with White Flower and White Discs
    1974, Sheet metal, rod and paint, 199 x 202 x 187 cm

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.

I started right away, using wire as my main material as well as working with others like string, leather, fabric and wood. Wood combined with wire was almost always my medium of choice. One friend of mine suggested that I should make sculpture entirely of wire, and that is how I started to make what I called ‚Wire Sculpture'.

Alexander Calder ©Photo, Alexander Calder, Carl Van Vechten, 10 July, 1947; Quotation, Alexander Calder, 1958

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