Bright Colors, Shapes and Planes in joyful motion. Let's enjoy the playful art of Alexander Calder this holiday season.
About Alexander Calder
Calder was born in Philadelphia to parents that didn’t want him to become an artist. But, he become a rather famous one anyway. He started as a child sculptor creating things from scrap metals, wires and wood.
He took a college education in mechanical engineering without knowing what it was, because he liked a fellow who was a mechanical engineer. Both intuitions would serve his artful explorations from New York to Paris.
For Calder, sculpting was “drawing in space” and he liked to make things move. He created motorized sculptures that Marcel Duchamp jokimgly called “mobiles” – a meeting of “movement and motive.” The pun and artwork stuck, but, by the 1930’s the predictable motorized movement was boring to Calder.
So, Calder turned to the serendipity of Nature and created hanging mobiles of abstract shapes delicately balanced to move by the slightest touch of air, thus creating continual and naturally shifting, playful forms..
At MOMANT, we love the art of things and understanding and preserve the ever-serendipity and beauty of Nature as inspiration is key for us, as well as reserving modern mechanizations for superior quality.
Thank you, Alexander Calder 1898-1976.
Image: Color, Shapes and Planes, 1951. Sold at Southeby's for $2.3MM, May 2018
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