Alexander Calder was born to a family of sculptors. His grandfather, Alexander Milne Calder (1846–1923), studied with Thomas Eakins and is famous for the elaborate sculptural decorations of Philadelphia's City Hall. Calder himself had studied to be an engineer at the Stevens Institute of Technology before attending the Art Students League in New York. Like many aspiring artists of his generation, Calder then spent time in Paris where he was inspired by Joan Miró's work and absorbed the playfulness of Dada. Indeed, it was the French artist Marcel Duchamp who christened Calder's hanging sculptures "mobiles." For works such as this one, Calder cut sheet metal into various shapes and assembled these elements in a chain-linked system so that the flat metal pieces move in response to currents of air.
This particular mobile was included in the 1942 exhibition "Artists for Victory" at The Met, where the sculpture committee awarded it a prize and recommended it be added to the collection.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Mobile
Artist:Alexander Calder (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1898–1976 New York)
Date:1941
Medium:Painted aluminum, steel, steel rod, and wire
Dimensions:a: 27 1/2 × 55 1/2 in., 2.7 lb. (69.9 × 141 cm, 1.2 kg) b: 36 × 54 in., 0.9 lb. (91.4 × 137.2 cm, 0.4 kg)
Classification:Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1942
Object Number:42.176a, b
the artist, Roxbury, Conn. (1941–42; sold to MMA)
Los Angeles. Design Project. "Alexander Calder, Mobiles, Stabiles, Jewelry; A Few Paintings by Paul Klee," September 27–October 27, 1941, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artists for Victory: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art," December 7, 1942–February 22, 1943, unnumbered cat. (p. 23; awarded a Fourth Prize).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artists for Victory: Prize Winners," March 8–May 10, 1943, no catalogue.
Boston. Institute of Modern Art. "Artists for Victory: Prize Winners," May 22–June 19, 1943, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting, 1754–1954," December 18, 1953–September 1954, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Junior Museum. "How to Look at Sculpture," September 16, 1960–June 24, 1962, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Junior Museum. "Looking at Sculpture," November 17, 1981–January 3, 1982, brochure no. 18.
Mountainville, N. Y. Storm King Art Center. "20th Century Sculpture: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 18–October 31, 1984, unnum. brochure (dated 1942).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Design 1925–1945: Selections from the Collection," December 18, 1989–June 1, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Artists for Victory," October 1, 1996–January 12, 1997, extended to January 22, 1997, no catalogue.
Paris. Fondation Louis Vuitton. "Charlotte Perriand: Inventing A New World," October 2, 2019–February 24, 2020, unnumbered cat. (p. 365).
A. Hyatt Mayor. Artists for Victory: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art. A Picture Book of the Prize Winners. New York, 1942, unpaginated, ill.
"Artists for Victory Score Victory in Metropolitan Exhibition." Art Digest 17 (December 15, 1942), p. 6.
Edward Alden Jewell. "Artists for Victory: Afterthoughts on the Huge Nation-Wide Survey at the Metropolitan Museum." New York Times (December 20, 1942), p. X9.
"Record Art Show Has $52,000 Prizes." New York Times (December 8, 1942), p. 30.
"Metropolitan Museum Opens Artists for Victory Exhibition." New York Herald Tribune (December 8, 1942), p. 21.
Rosamund Frost. "Artists for Victory: Sculpture." Art News 41 (January 1–14, 1943), p. 15.
Holger Cahill. "In Our Time." Magazine of Art 39 (November 1946), ill. p. 324.
Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. "Sculpture Survey, 1872–1925." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (December 1951), ill. p. 144, dates it 1942.
Howard Devree. "2 Centuries of Art in U.S. on Display." New York Times (December 18, 1953), p. L26.
Howard Devree. "American Survey: Metropolitan Traces 200 Years of Art—Three Landscapists—An Exotic." New York Times (December 20, 1953), p. X11.
Albert TenEyck Gardner. American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1965, pp. 170–71, ill.
"'Looking at Sculpture' at Met Junior Museum." New York Times (December 13, 1981), p. 95.
David Collens in20th Century Sculpture: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Storm King Art Center. [Mountainville, N. Y.], [1984], unpaginated.
Lowery S. Sims in20th Century Sculpture: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Storm King Art Center. [Mountainville, N. Y.], [1984], unpaginated.
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, ill. p. 77 (color).
MetLiveArts Intern Karmen Wolf explores Morton Feldman's mammoth String Quartet No. 2, which the Calder Quartet will perform this fall at The Met Cloisters.
This curriculum resource, consisting of engaging lessons written by K–12 teachers, provides inspiration and techniques for investigating the theme of “power” using a wide range of artworks from The Met collection.
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Alexander Calder (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1898–1976 New York)
1969
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