Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder transformed modern sculpture with his innovative mobiles and stabiles, which now grace major museums worldwide. Born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania on July 22, 1898, he came from a distinguished artistic family—his grandfather sculpted for Philadelphia, his mother studied at the Académie Julian and Sorbonne, and his father helped found the Art Museum at University of California Berkeley. Despite this heritage, Calder initially pursued mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, graduating in 1919.
After working as a hydraulic engineer and draughtsman, Calder returned to his artistic roots and enrolled at the Art Students League in New York City, studying with Thomas Hart Benton, George Luks, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan. A 1926 assignment covering the Ringling Brothers Circus for a local gazette sparked themes that would resonate throughout his career. That same year, he established a studio in Paris’s Montparnasse quarter, befriending Joan Miró, Jean Arp, Piet Mondrian, and Marcel Duchamp.
In 1929, Calder married Louisa James, grandniece of writer Henry James. The couple returned to the United States in 1933, settling on a farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, where they raised their family. Calder, represented by Park West Gallery, remained there until his unexpected death in 1976, which came immediately after the opening of his major retrospective at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan.