With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Alexander Calder
Sculpture
1898 – 1976
Alexander Calder was a renowned sculptor who focused on monumental steel structures. He invented and developed new forms called stabiles and mobiles which can be seen throughout the world. Although he is today mostly remembered for his large steel structures, he also painted, designed and made his own jewelry, and carved wood figures. Calder was often found in his studio tinkering with everyday objects and creating art out of anything he found lying around.
- Biography/Description of Work
Alexander Calder was born in 1898 in Pennsylvania to a family of artists. He moved with his family often during childhood and in each place, his parents made sure to have a basement for his use as a studio space. In 1915, Calder elected to study mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, earning a degree in 1919. In 1923, he changed course and moved to New York City to attend the Art Students League. Three years later, Calder moved to Paris and established a studio. While traveling from Paris to New York in 1929, he met his future wife, Louisa James (1905-1996); they married in 1931 and resided in Paris until 1933. While in Paris, Calder became friends with avant-garde artists such as Joan Miro, Jean Arp, and Marcel Duchamp. In 1929, Calder had his first showing of his wire sculptures; and in 1931, he created his first hanging sculptures with moving parts, powered by wind and air currents. Marcel Duchamp termed the moving sculptures mobiles, while Jean Arp coined the term stabile for Calder’s self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures. When Calder and his wife moved back to the United States in 1933, they purchased a farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised their daughters. In 1934, Calder made his first outdoor works in his studio in Roxbury. They were unable to withstand strong winds, and so he began to create small scale maquettes which he had enlarged to monumental sizes. Places such as Segre’s Iron Works in Waterbury, Connecticut would produce these monumental structures for Calder. He focused his work on them from the 1950s through the 1970s. In 1976, he was working on a combined mobile and stabile structure called “Mountains and Clouds” to go in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington D.C. At the end of a meeting he had in Washington about this structure, he had a heart attack and died upon his return home. Since the maquette had been approved, the “Mountains and Clouds” structure was still scheduled to be created but was not actually erected until 1985. The Calder Foundation, organized by the family in 1987, is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, preserving and interpreting the artist’s work, with an office in New York City and a facility in Roxbury, Connecticut.
- Sources view
- Uconn database, Bob Gregson, http://www.calder.org/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Calder, http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/calder/realsp/roomenter-foyer.htm, http://whitney.org/Collection/AlexanderCalder, http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/publications/from-the-archives/items/view/67, http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/calder-and-abstraction-avant-garde-iconic, http://rogallery.com/Calder_Alexander/calder-biography.htm, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/alexander-calder/about-the-artist/78/, http://www.antiquetalk.com/index.php/antique-talk/21-antique-talk/biographies/138-biography-alexander-calder
Alexander Calder Article - New York Times - 1960-3-20, Alexander Calder Article - New York Times - 1962-3-25, Alexander Calder Article - New York Times - 1964-11-8, Alexander Calder Article - New York Times - 1972-4-20, Alexander Calder Article - New York Times - 1995-11-19, Alexander Calder Obituary - New York Times - 1976-11-12, Alexander Calder - Pre - Associated Resource(s)