Alexander Calder was an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of moving sculpture. Stimulated by Duchamp, he wanted to connect abstraction and movement. Calder also produced wire figures, which are like drawings made in space. He is seen as one of the most important representatives of the Kinetic Art. His life-long friendship with Joan Miró influenced his work. In addition to sculptures, Calder painted throughout his career, beginning in the early 1920s. As Calder’s sculpture moved into the realm of abstraction in the early 1930s, so did his prints. The thin lines used to define figures in the earlier prints and drawings began delineating groups of geometric shapes, often in motion. As Calder’s professional reputation expanded in the late 1940’s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Calder was active all across Europe and the U.S. He died unexpectedly on November 11, 1976, shortly after the opening of a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York.
