CALDER, Alexander

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Alexander Calder worked at various jobs before enrolling at the Art Students League in New York City in 1923. In June 1936, Calder moved to Paris. He took some classes at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and made his first wire sculptures.
Calder's first New York City exhibition was in 1928, and other exhibitions in Paris and Berlin gained him international recognition as a significant artist. Calder was prolific and worked throughout his career in many art forms. He produced drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, gouache and serigraphy. He also designed jewelry, tapestry, theatre settings and architectural interiors. Calder died in 1976.


Selected Exhibitions:

2008 Alexander Calder: Gouaches, Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York City, NY

2008 Alexander Calder Jewlery, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL

2007 Focus: Alexander Calder, MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

2006 The Surreal Calder, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN.

2006 Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro. Calder in Brazil. 21 November 2006-11 February 2007.

2006 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. I Think Best in Wire: Alexander Calder. 29 June-10 September 2006.

2006 PaceWildenstein, New York. Calder Gouaches: 1942-1976. 22 September-21 October 2006.

2006 PaceWildenstein, New York. Calder: From Model to Monument. 3 February-4 March 2006.

2005 Gagosian Gallery, New York. Alexander Calder: Two Monumental Sculptures. 4 June-29 July 2005.

2005 Alexander Calder, Samuel Vanhoegaerden Gallery, Knokke-Heist

2004 - 2005 Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Calder - Miro. 9 October 2004-23 January 2005. (group)

2004 Alexander Calder, Kukje Gallery, Seoul

2003 - 2004 Museo Nacional - Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain. Calder: Gravedad y la Gracia. 27 November 2003-18 February 2004.

2003 Fundacion del Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain. Calder: Gravedad y la Gracia. 18 March-12 October 2003.

2003 Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills. Alexander Calder. 3 May-21 June 2003.

2002 PaceWildenstein, New York. Calder '76: The Cutouts. 14 February-16 March 2002.

2002 Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan. Alexander Calder: Motion and Color. 20 February-7 April 2002.

2002 Calder: Four Maquettes, Two Stabiles and a Little Bird Too, Ameringer Fine Arts, New York, September - October 2002

2001 Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan. Alexander Calder: Motion and Color. 6 April-13 May 2001. Toured to 5 cities in Japan.

2000 - 2001 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Alexander Calder in Focus. 13 December 2000-19 August 2001.

2000 PaceWildenstein, New York. Earthly Forms: The Biomorphic Sculpture of Arp, Calder and Noguchi. 18 February-20 March 2000. (group)

1999 Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. An Adventurous Spirit: Calder at The Phillips Collection. 23 January-18 July 1999.

1999 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Alexander Calder. 4 April 1998-28 March 1999.

1998 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and SF MoMA, Alexander Calder: 1898-1976. 29 March-12 July 1998.

1998 San Jose Museum of Art, California. Flying Colors: The Innovation and Artistry of Alexander Calder. 16 November 1997-1 February 1998.

1996 Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Alexander Calder: 1898-1976. 10 July-6 October 1996.

1996 The Baltimore Museum of Art. Celebrating Calder. 4 October 1995-7 January 1996.

1994 Bibliotheque Municipale and Abbaye Saint-Germain, Auxerre, France. Calder. 27 May 1994.

1993 - 1994 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Calder Gallery Installation. January 1993-May 1994.

1993 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Alexander Calder from the Collection of the Ruth and Leonard J. Horwich Family. 21 November 1992-31 January 1993.

1992 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Celebrating Calder. 13 November 1991-2 January 1992.

1992 Royal Academy of Arts, London. Alexander Calder. 13 March-7 June 1992.

1989 - 1990 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN. The Intimate World of Alexander Calder. 17 October 1989-11 March 1990.

1987 - 1988 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Alexander Calder: Sculptures of the Nineteen Thirties. 14 November 1987-17 January 1988.

1984 Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela. (Calder). May-June 1984.

1883 - 1984 Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Des Stabiles et des Mobiles de Calder. 26 October 1983-2 January 1984.

1982 Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. Tapices de Alexander Calder. 20 July-29 August 1982.

1981 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Alexander Calder: A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art. 17 February-3 May 1981.

1978 Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Images de Calder. 17 February-27 March 1978.

1978 San Jose Museum of Art, California. Portland Art Museum, Oregon. Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona. Calder's Universe. .

1977 American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York. Alexander Calder Memorial. 14 November-30 December 1977.

1977 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. High Art Musuem, Atlanta, Georgia. Calder's Universe.

1976 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. (Calder). October 1976.

1976 Retrospective at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1963 - 1964 Calder gouache show at Perls Gallery, New York; retrospective at Guggenheim Museum, New York

1962 Retrospective at Tate Gallery, London

1956 Solo show with new dealer, Klaus Perls

1950 solo shows include: Galerie Maeght, Paris, and retrospective at Masachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

1943 Retrospective at Museum of Modern Art; solo show at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts

1932 solo exhibition at Julien Levy Gallery, New York

1929 Galerie Billiet gives Calder's first solo show in Paris

1928 First show of wire animals and caricature portraits held at Weyhe Gallery, New York

1926 First painting exhibition at the Artist's Gallery, New York

Alexander Calder, amerikansk skulptör och målare, föddes i Philadelphia 1898 och gick bort i New York 1976. Utbildad till ingenjör inom mekaniken studerade han också formgivning på kvällstid. 1926 for han på den då, för amerikanska konstnärer, obligatoriska pilgrimsresan till Paris och ställde där ut sina kinetiska ståltrådsskulpturer redan året efter. I New York hade Calder sin första separatutställning 1928 och när han senare återvände till Paris lärde han känna bland andra Jean Arp, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondrian och Fernand Léger. Ett besök i Piet Mondrians konststudio 1930 inspirerade honom till att ta sig an den abstrakta konsten.
Han anslöt sig så småningom till gruppen Abstraction-Creation och skapade där sina första abstrakta figurer, vilka Arp kallade stabiles och de åtföljdes snart av mobiler, motordrivna eller endast "luftdrivna". Det var i Paris som Calder tillverkade sina "mini-cirkusar" med rörliga figurer i ståltråd och trä.
Under andra världskriget, försökte Calder bli marinsoldat, men blev inte antagen. Istället fortsatte han skulptera, men brist på metall fick honom att börja producera konstverk i trä. Efter kriget hade Calder flera stora retrospektiva utställningar, bland annat en på Museum of Moder Art i New York 1943.
Omkring 1970 finner vi att Alexander Calder också avbildar rörelsen i gouachemålningar av relativt stort format och även i grafiska verk. Plötsligt är också illusionen kinetisk, rörelsen framgår tydligt, utan vind, utan motor.
Endast i betraktarens öga.