Alexander Calder American, 1898-1976

Alexander Calder was an American artist renowned for inventing the kinetic sculptures known as mobiles. He also created a wide range of two-dimensional works, including paintings, tapestries, and lithographs, such as Three Elephants (1975). Born in Lawnton, PA, he turned to art in the 1920s, studying under George Luks and Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League in New York. 

In 1925, Calder sketched the Ringling Brothers Circus in New York and later in Sarasota, Florida. He moved to Paris in 1926, where his Cirque Calder performances introduced him to the European avant-garde. His wire sculptures and kinetic work attracted the attention of Marcel Duchamp, who coined the term mobile—a pun in French meaning both “motion” and “motive”—during a visit to Calder’s Paris studio in 1931. Initially powered by motors, Calder’s mobiles soon relied on air currents or touch. Over his seven-decade career, he produced not only mobiles but also monumental sculptures, paintings, works on paper, and jewelry. Calder lived in Roxbury, CT, and Saché, France, until his death in New York City in 1976.