Early Work and Non-artitic Career of Alexander Calder - Essay Example

Art Art Introduction Alexander Calder wa born July 22, 1898, in Lawnton, Pennylvania, into a family of artit. In 1919, he received an engineering degree from teven Intitute of Technology, Hoboken. Calder attended the Art tudent League, New York, from 1923 to 1926, tudying briefly with Thoma Hart Benton and John loan, among other. A a freelance artit for the National Police Gazette in 1925, he pent two week ketching at the circu; hi facination with the ubject date from thi time. He alo made hi firt culpture in 1925; the following year he made everal contruction of animal and figure with wire and wood. Calder' firt exhibition of painting took place in 1926 at the Artit' Gallery, New York. Later that year, he went to Pari and attended the Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire. In Pari, he met tanley William Hayter, exhibited at the 1926 alon de Indpendant, and in 1927 began giving performance of hi miniature circu. The firt how of hi wire animal and caricature portrait wa held at the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in 1928. That ame year, he met Joan Mir, who became hi lifelong friend. ubequently, Calder divided hi time between France and the United tate. In 1929, the Galerie Billiet gave him hi firt olo how in Pari. He met Frederick Kieler, Fernand Lger, and Theo van Doeburg and viited Piet Mondrian' tudio in 1930. Calder began to experiment with abtract culpture at thi time and in 1931 and 1932 introduced moving part into hi work. Thee moving culpture were called "mobile"; the tationary contruction were to be named "tabile." He exhibited with the Abtraction-Cration group in Pari in 1933. In 1943, the Mueum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a olo exhibition. (Haye, 99-101) During the 1950, Calder traveled widely and executed Tower (wall mobile) and Gong (ound mobile). He won the Grand Prize for culpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. Late in the decade, the artit worked extenively with gouache; from thi period, he executed numerou major public commiion. In 1964-65, the olomon R. Guggenheim Mueum, New York, preented a Calder retropective. He began the Totem in 1966 and the Animobile in 1971; both are variation on the tanding mobile. A Calder exhibition wa held at the Whitney Mueum of American Art, New York, in 1976. Calder died November 11, 1976, in New York. Early Work & Non-artitic Career Born into a family of artit in Lawnton, Pennylvania, to culptor Alexander tirling Calder and portrait painter Nanette Lederer Calder, both Calder and hi older iter, Margaret Calder Haye, were encouraged to be creative from childhood. (Calder, 13) Calder' firt ignificant recognition a an artit came when he exhibited hi now- famou miniature circu with it animated wire performer at Pari' alon de Humorite in 1927. The idea for the toy figure can be traced back to ketche he made in 1925 while reporting on the circu for the Police Gazette. Made from wire, rubber, cork, button, bottle cap, wood, and other mall "found" object, Calder' circu include lion, acrobat, trapeze artit, elephant, a ringmater, and numerou other figure. Unlike many art work of the period, the unuual creation drew crowd from outide the artitic community a well a within, and the thirty-year-old artit found himelf uddenly widely known. (Prather, 22-32) Facination with the Circu Calder tudied at the Art tudent' League from 1923 to 1926 and worked a a freelance illutrator and toy deigner. Hi facination with the circu began in 1925 when he pent two week ketching at Ringling Brother and Barnum and Bailey Circu on aignment for the National Police Gazette. In 1926 he began creating the firt few figure of wire and wood which were later to grow into the Cirque Calder (Eagle, 7) Calder' firt wire culpture, Joephine Baker (1926), a witty linear repreentation of the famou American-born chanteue, wa exhibited to the Pari art community during the ame period that hi circu wa drawing attention. He decided to return to New York City late in 1927, where he gave a one-man how that included Joephine Baker, a well a everal of hi other wire portrait. Thoe portrait would grow increaingly three dimenional a the artit refined hi technique. (Prather, 22-32) Career Miletone In 1928, Calder enjoyed hi firt olo how in the U at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. Hi firt olo how in Pari wa held at the Galerie Billiet in 1929. Peace Activim Eccentric even by artitic tandard, Calder nonethele emphaized harmony and wanted audience to enjoy hi work; he reportedly loved it when people burt out laughing. He wa alo active in the peace movement and proteted againt the Vietnam War. For thi, he received the United Nation Peace Medal in 1975 and Gerald Ford' offer of a Preidential Medal of Freedom in 1976. Calder declined Ford' offer, aying that hi acceptance would imply hi agreement with the government' "harh treatment meted out to concientiou objector and deerter." (Prather, 22-32) Influenced by Modernit In November 1928 Calder wa again in Pari, upporting himelf with performance of hi miniature circu, one of which wa attended by panih urrealit Joan Mir. Calder had hi firt one-man how in Pari at the Galrie Billiet and in Berlin in 1929. In Pari he met a number of important modernit, including Fernand Lger, Theo Van Doeburg, and Piet Mondrian, the latter whoe work particularly impreed him. By 1930 Calder wa making large-cale abtract wire culpture uing flat metal oval painted black or bright color, a well a mall ball or other hape upended by long wire. Many of thee work uggeted the olar ytem in their deign. From thee beginning he developed motor-driven culpture, which featured object hanging from large bae, although the artit had no fondne for the regular, predictable motion provided by motor. An exhibition of Calder' kinetic culpture wa een by Marcel Duchamp, who referred to them a "mobile"--a term which became aociated with thi work. He made a number of culpture during the thirtie which employed the ame form a the mobile but were tatic, and known a "tabile." (Prather, 22-32) Meanwhile, in 1931 Calder wa married to Louia Jame, who he had met on a voyage to New York City; that ame year he illutrated an edition of Aeop' Fable . Two year later Calder made hi firt draft-propelled mobile. Rather than following a monotonou path of motion a did hi motor-driven culpture, thee piece create myriad pattern once they are et in action by a breeze or gentle puh. Their hape, largely ovoid and biomorphic, may have been inpired by the art of Mir. In 1933 Calder and hi wife bought a farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, where he etablihed hi tudio. In 1935 and again in 1936 he deigned tage et for the dancer Martha Graham. (Teodelapio, 88) The Mueum of Modern Art in New York City gave a comprehenive exhibition of Calder' work in 1943, during which the artit gave performance of hi famou circu; the how' catalog wa the firt extenive tudy on the artit. The following year he made culpture out of plater to be cat in bronze. Thee piece moved at a low, meaured pace. During thi period he illutrated Three Young Rat (1944), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with Robert Penn Warren' eay on Coleridge (1945), and The Fable of LaFontaine (1946). At thi time Calder' international reputation wa reinforced by exhibition in New York, Amterdam, Berne, Rio de Janeiro, o Paulo, Boton, and Richmond, Virginia. In 1952 he deigned the acoutical ceiling for the Aula Magna at the univerity in Caraca and received the firt prize for culpture at the Venice Biennale. Commiion for hi deign continued to pour in a he created everything from jewelry to cotume and tage-et deign for dance and theatrical performance. In the 1970, at the height of Calder' fame, Braniff Airline commiioned him to paint ome of their jet plane with hi unique, boldly colorful deign. (Man, 75) Calder' work are featured in permanent intallation around the world. In 1955 he travelled to India to execute 11 mobile for public building in Ahmadabad. He deigned many monumental piece, including thoe for Lincoln Center in New York City, for the Maachuett Intitute of Technology in Cambridge, for the garden of UNECO in Pari, and for Expo '67 at Montreal. In 1964, when the artit wa in hi late eventie, he wa honored with a comprehenive retropective at the Guggenheim Mueum in New York City; a maller one wa given at the Mueum of Modern Art in 1970. At hi death in 1976, Calder wa eulogized by Minneapoli, Minneota, curator Marvin Friedman a "one of the greatet form-giver America ha ever produced." (La, 2) Concluion Alexander Calder, internationally famou by hi mid-30, i renowned for developing a new idiom in modern art-the mobile. Hi work in thi mode, from miniature to monumental, are called mobile (upended moving culpture), tanding mobile (anchored moving culpture) and tabile (tationary contruction). Calder' abtract work are characteritically direct, pare, buoyant, colorful and finely crafted. He made ingeniou, frequently witty, ue of natural and manmade material, including wire, heetmetal, wood and bronze. Work Cited Haye, Margaret Calder, Three Alexander Calder: A Family Memoir. Middlebury, VT: Paul Erikon, 1977. Calder, Alexander and Davidon, Jean, Calder, An Autobiography with Picture. New York: Pantheon Book, 1966, p. 13. Prather, Marla. Alexander Calder 1898 - 1976. National Gallery of Art, Wahington D.C., 1998. Teodelapio (1962), teel plate and paint, monumental tabile, poleto, Italy Man (1967) tainle teel plate, bolt and paint, 65' x 83' x 53', monumental tabile, Montreal Canada La Grande Vitee (1969), teel plate, bolt and paint, 43' x 55' x 25', Grand Rapid, Michigan Eagle (1971), teel plate, bolt and paint, 38'9" x 32'8" x 32'8", Olympic culpture Park, eattle, Wahington Read More