Masterpiece: Mobiles by Alexander Calder

Keywords: Mobiles, Stabile, Kinetic Grade: 1st Grade Month: November Activity: Standing Mobile

Meet the Artist and his work:  Alexander Stirling Calder was born on July 22,1898, in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. He was the second child of artist parents—his father was a sculptor and his mother a painter.  His friends called him Sandy.  For Christmas in 1909, Calder presented his parents with two of his first sculptures, a tiny dog and duck cut from a brass sheet and bent into formation. The duck is kinetic—it rocks back and forth when tapped. Even at age eleven, his facility in handling materials was apparent.  Despite his talents, Calder did not originally set out to become an artist. He instead enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology after high school and graduated in 1919 with an engineering degree. He undertook a series of jobs but remained unsatisfied with his career choice  Calder decided to pursue an art career and moved to New York in 1923, enrolling at the Art Students League. He also took a job illustrating for the National Police Gazette.  In the fall of 1931, a significant turning point in Calder's artistic career occurred when he created his first truly kinetic sculpture and gave form to an entirely new type of art. The first of these objects moved by systems of cranks and motors, and were dubbed "mobiles" by Marcel Duchamp—in French mobile refers to both "motion" and "motive." (If you have a baby brother or sister, they may have a mobile of brightly colored animals dancing above their crib.) Calder soon abandoned the mechanical aspects of these works when he realized he could fashion mobiles that would undulate on their own with the air's currents. Jean Arp, in order to differentiate Calder's non-kinetic works from his kinetic works, named Calder's stationary objects "stabiles."  In 1933 Calder purchased an old farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut. Calder converted an icehouse attached to the main house into a studio for himself.  His mobiles are the American sculpture most admired all over the world.  Calder died at the age of seventy-eight, ending the most prolific and innovative artistic career of the twentieth century.

P a g e | 1 Masterpiece: Mobiles by Alexander Calder

About His Work:

 We have a poster showing several of his works and a Calder Power-point presentation to use as well.

Key Words: • mobiles —art that moves, he fashioned mobiles that would undulate on their own with the air's currents • stabiles —non-kinetic standing mobile • Kinetic —motion

Possible Questions:

• How many of you have seen a mobile? • What do you think the artist uses to make the mobile? • What makes them interesting? • Do you like them?

Activity: Standing Mobile

Materials Needed: Air dry clay, pipe cleaners, foam shapes, construction paper, glue, scissors.

Process:

1. Give each student 4 pipe cleaners and a 1” ball of clay. 2. Stick one end of the pipe cleaner into the clay. The wire can be bent, twisted, or left straight. 3. Foam shapes, beads, etc to other end of wire like flags or flower blossoms. 4. They can also fold construction paper and cut out shapes. Glue the shapes to the end of the pipe cleaners. 5. The free-standing mobile will move in air currents or the gentle push of your finger.

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