other artists

• Ana Mendieta
• Francis Bacon
• Hiroshi Sugimoto
• Willem de Kooning
• Jean Dubuffet
• Alberto Giacometti
• Henri Matisse
• Henry Moore
• Gerhard Richter
• Auguste Rodin
• Ed Ruscha
• David Smith
• Ellsworth Kelly
• Nikki Lee
• Man Ray
• John Baldessari
• Arshile Gorky

in depth: Alexander Calder

The son and grandson of artists, Alexander Calder (American, born Lawnton, Pennsylvania, 1898–1976) earned a degree in mechanical engineering before deciding to become an artist. After supporting himself as an engineer and draftsman while studying at the Art Student's League in New York (1923–26), he journeyed to Paris, where he met avant-garde artists and first created the wire sculptures described by critics as "drawings in space."
 
Impressed by the primary colors and geometry of Piet Mondrian’s works, Calder was determined to put similar austere abstractions in motion. In 1930, he made his first "mobiles," or moving (kinetic) sculptures. Soon after, he created "stabiles" (static constructed sculptures) and standing mobiles—static sculptures with moving elements on top.

By the mid-1930s, his work was more biomorphic and was influenced  by the Surrealism of his friends Jean Arp and Joan Miró. From the late 1940s forward, Calder developed monumental sculptures that defined architectural spaces.
 
Although based in abstraction, Calder's objects incorporate references to the natural world, interacting directly with their environments as wind or breeze moves them and light introduces shadow play. Reflecting his interest in continual change, Calder added a fourth dimension to sculpture: time.