Calder Mobile May 16, 2010

Along with George Rickey, Alexander Calder was a pioneering figure in the development of abstract kinetic sculpture. Calder is particularly notable for his invention of the "mobile," a free-hanging sculptural form composed of weighted shapes that are attached to finely balanced metal rods. Born into a family of prominent American sculptors, Calder had initially studied mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology, but later trained in modern art in New York and Paris during the 1920s. While Calder's experimentation with kinetic design in the early thirties resulted from his technical background in engineering, the stylistic form of his mobiles was based on a radical synthesis of modernist trends including Biomorphic Surrealism, Russian Constructivism and Cubist abstraction. The expressive curved elements in Mobile recall Surrealist paintings by Joan Miro, in which whimsical organic shapes appear to float and hover within a dream space. However, Calder's effort to incorporate movement into his sculptures was strongly influenced by Russian Constructivism, which advocated the materialist principle of directly integrating artistic form with the surrounding spatial environment. The dynamic shifting patterns in the mobiles also express in three-dimensional form Cubist theories regarding the fluctuating, temporal basis of visual perception. Although the invention of the mobiles stemmed from industrial design principles and esoteric modernist styles, they are rich in symbolic properties that evoke the simple, elemental structures of the natural world. Calder was intrigued by cosmological science and twentieth century astronomical discoveries and his mobiles have often been likened to orreries (mechanized models of the universe), as their rotating motion suggests the orbital pattern of planetary bodies in space. Yet, despite its monumental architectural scale, the slender rods and tapered planar shapes of this mobile are also evocative of the delicate movement of tree branches and leaves stirring in the wind.