![\"Five](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/5931e5e6.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
Five Points\/Triangles <\/em><\/span> by Alexander Calder, 1957
All images via Gagosian Gallery<\/a> unless otherwise noted<\/span><\/p>\n
Currently on view at Gagosian Gallery<\/a>, New York is an exhibition of the large-format sculptures of Alexander Calder<\/a>, produced between 1957 and 1970. The exhibition pays tribute to the late oeuvre of this renowned American sculptor, illuminating the period when Calder almost exclusively dedicated himself to sculpture of monumental proportions \u2013 the genre that brought him the international acclaim.<\/strong><\/p>\n More text, images and related links after the jump\u2026..<\/span><\/strong> Formally trained in mechanical engineering, Alexander Calder invented his first mobiles (a term coined by Marcel Duchamp) in the late 20\u2019s. His first flirtations with the movable art are manifested in the Circque Calder, a series of cirque characters now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1931, Calder met Piet Mondrian in his Parisian studio and was entirely smitten by the latter\u2019s groundbreaking abstract idiom. Then, the winning combination of the abstract and the kinetic was born.<\/p>\n Although his first mobiles made use of modern technology and were driven by electrical or mechanical means, the artist soon abandoned this mechanism in favor of the unpredictable influences of wind and water. Returning to the United States in 1993, Calder continued to work on his Cirque and simultaneously, on the stage design for Martha Graham ballet. In 1938, the Museum of Modern Art, New York paid the tribute to Calder\u2019s growing international recognition, hosting a large retrospective in part curated by Marcel Duchamp.<\/p>\n Calder concentrated his efforts primarily on large-scale commissioned works in his later years. Some of these major monumental sculpture commissions include: .125<\/em>, a mobile for the New York Port Authority that was hung in Idlewild (now John F. Kennedy) Airport (1957); La Spirale<\/em>, for UNESCO, in Paris (1958); Teodelapio<\/em>, for the city of Spoleto, Italy (1962); Man<\/em>, for the Expo in Montreal (1967); El Sol Rojo<\/em> (the largest of all Calder\u2019s works, at sixty-seven feet high) installed outside the Aztec Stadium for the Olympic Games in Mexico City; La grande vitesse<\/em>, the first public art work to be funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan (1969); and Flamingo<\/em>, a stabile for the General Services Administration in Chicago (1973).<\/p>\n <\/strong> Alexander Calder was born in 1898, Pennsylvania and attended the Stevens Institute of Technology and Art Students League. He died in New York City in 1976. Important museum collections include Mus\u00e9e national d`art moderne de la ville de Paris and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof\u00eda, Madrid; and Museum of Modern Art, New York. Calder\u2019s public commissions are in evidence in cities all over the world and his work has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions, including \u201cAlexander Calder: Die gro\u00dfen Skulpturen\/Der andere Calder\u201d, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, 1993; \u201cAlexander Calder\u201d, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 1995 (traveled to: Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Mus\u00e9e d\u2019art moderne de la ville de Paris, in1996); \u201cAlexander Calder: 1898-1976\u2033, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1998); \u201cAlexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933\u2033, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2008 (traveled to the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2009) and \u201cCalder\u201d, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2009-2010).<\/p>\n Relevant Links:
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<\/span>![\"Rouge](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/6737cad7.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
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Rouge Triomphant (Triumphant Red)<\/span><\/em> by Alexander Calder, 1959-1963<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/f9f92146.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
Installation view<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Sponk](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/01e9bc87.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
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Spunk of the Monk<\/em> by Alexander Calder,1964 \u2013 a no less impressive \u201cstabile\u201d (term created by Jean Arp to describe Calder\u2019s static works). Commissioned for Mies van der Rohe\u2019s American Republic Insurance Company building in Des Moines, Iowa, its title is a playful allusion to the notion of life force, combining the translated French derivation of city\u2019s original name with the slang term for spirit or semen.<\/p>\n![\"Installation](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/3c4dd8ed.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
Installation View<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/12dceb26.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
Installation View<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i1.exhibit-e.com\/gagosian\/5e3d0b1e.jpg\" "\\"Alexander")
Installation View<\/span><\/p>\n
Exhibition\u2019s web-page [Gagosian Gallery<\/a>]
Alexander Calder Foundation web-page [Alexander Calder<\/a>]
The artist\u2019s page at Whitney Museum of American Art [Whitney Museum<\/a>]<\/span><\/p>\n