Alexander CalderAlexander Calder lithographic cover 1971 (Calder Derrière le miroir)c.1971
c.1971
About the Item
- Creator:Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976, American)
- Creation Year:c.1971
- Dimensions:Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Width: 11 in (27.94 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:NEW YORK, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU354314454582
Alexander Calder
The American sculptor Alexander Calder is known as the father of the mobile, a moving artwork composed of delicately balanced sculptural forms suspended from the ceiling.
Because Calder's parents, both artists themselves, did not want him to suffer the hardships of trying to make a living in art, they encouraged the young Calder to study mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He worked a number of jobs, including as a hydraulic engineer and draftsman for the New York Edison Company, before deciding to pursue an artistic career. He never abandoned his engineering background, however, applying his understanding of gears and moving parts in all his artworks, from mechanical toys like the Cirque Calder (1931) and his revered prints to his free-standing abstract sculptures, called stabiles.
In 1926, Calder moved to Paris and established a studio in the Montparnasse quarter. He began creating the many parts of his famous miniature circus from found materials, such as wire, string, cloth, rubber and cork. Designed to be transportable, Cirque grew to fill five suitcases over the years. Always interested in putting forms in motion, Calder also pioneered a new art form called wire sculptures, which he described as “drawings in space.” Like his famous mobiles, the wire sculptures were suspended so that they turned with any movement of the air, presenting different forms when viewed from different angles.
In the 1950s, Calder returned to his roots in mechanical engineering, creating monumental abstract sculptures that verged on the architectural. He worked from loose gestural drawings like this preparatory sketch for his Man Stabile, from 1966. Throughout his career, he also worked as a set designer for the theater, as well as an illustrator and printmaker, producing vibrant, whimsical drawings for books and journals.
Find original Alexander Calder art today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 2 days of delivery.
- 1960s Antoni Tàpies lithograph (derrière le miroir)By Antoni TàpiesLocated in NEW YORK, NYVintage 1960s Antoni Tàpies Lithograph Portfolio: Derriere Le Miroir. Published by: Galerie Maeght/Aime Maeght, Paris 1967. Lithograph in colors; 1967. 15 x 22 inches. Center fold...Category
1960s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Alexander Calder Lithographic cover Derrière le miroir 1973By Alexander CalderLocated in NEW YORK, NYAlexander Calder Lithographic cover: Derrière le miroir 1973: Lithographic cover sheet; 15 x 11 inches. Very good overall vintage condition. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Por...Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Alexander Calder lithograph Derrière le Miroir (Calder prints)By Alexander CalderLocated in NEW YORK, NYAlexander Calder Lithograph c. 1971 from Derrière le miroir: Lithograph in colors; 15 x 11 inches. Very good overall vintage condition. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. From: Derrière le miroir Published Paris c. 1971. Printed in France. Derrière le miroir: In October 1945 the French art dealer Aimé Maeght opens his art gallery at 13 Rue de Téhéran in Paris. His beginning coincides with the end of Second World War and the return of a number of exiled artists back to France. The publication was created in October 1946 (n°1) and published without interruption until 1982 (n°253). Its original articles and illustrations (mainly original color lithographs by the gallery artists) who were famous at the time. The lithographic publication covered only the artists exhibited by Maeght gallery either through personal or group exhibitions. Among them were, Pierre Alechinsky, Francis Bacon, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Eduardo Chillida, Alberto Giacometti, Vassily Kandinsky, Ellsworth Kelly, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Saul Steinberg and Antoni Tapies. Alexander Calder was an American artist best known for his invention of the kinetic sculptures known as mobiles. Calder also produced a variety of two-dimensional artworks including lithographs, paintings, and tapestries as seen in his Butterfly (1970). “My whole theory about art is the disparity that exists between form, masses, and movement,” the artist once said. Born on August 22, 1898 in Lawnton, PA, Calder turned to art in the 1920s, studying drawing and painting under George Luks and Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League in New York. Calder moved to Paris to continue his studies in 1926, where he was introduced to the European avant-garde through performances of his Cirque Calder (1926–1931). “I was very fond of the spatial relations,” he said of his interest in the circus. “The whole thing of the—the vast space—I’ve always loved it.” With these performances, along with his wire sculptures, Calder attracted the attention of such notable figures as Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, and Fernand Léger. Notably, it was his friend Duchamp that coined the term mobile—a pun in French meaning both “motion” and “motive”—during a visit to Calder’s Paris studio in 1931. His earliest mobiles moved by motors, but Calder soon abandoned these mechanics and designed pieces that moved by air currents or human interaction. Over the course of seven decades, along with his mobiles, he also produced paintings, monumental outdoor sculptures, works on paper, domestic objects, and jewelry. The artist lived in both Roxbury, CT, and Saché, France, before his death on November 11, 1976 in New York, NY. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Tate Gallery in London. Related Categories Calder prints. Mid Century Modern. 1970s. Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art. Mid Century Modern. Calder clowns.Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Alexander Calder Lithographic cover Derrière le miroir 1973By Alexander CalderLocated in NEW YORK, NYAlexander Calder Lithographic cover: Derrière le miroir 1973: Lithographic cover sheet; 15 x 11 inches. Very good overall vintage condition. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Por...Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Miró lithograph Derriere Le Miroir 1960sBy Joan MiróLocated in NEW YORK, NY1960s Joan Miró Lithograph from Derrière le miroir: Lithograph in colors; 15 x 11 inches. Very good overall vintage condition. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. From: Derrière l...Category
1960s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- 1960's Joan Miro lithograph (from Derrière le miroir)By Joan MiróLocated in NEW YORK, NY1960s Joan Miró lithograohic cover from Derrière le miroir: Lithographic cover in colors; 11 x 15 inches (folding out to 15 x 22 inches). Circa 1964. Very good overall vintage cond...Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- No. 2 from "Als Mestres de Catalunya, " Lithograph by Antoni TapiesBy Antoni TàpiesLocated in Long Island City, NYThis lithograph was created by Catalan artist Antoni Tapies. Tàpies started as a surrealist painter, and his early works were influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró. However, he soon became an informal artist, working in a style known as pintura matèrica, in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. This lithograph comes from the Als Mestres de Catalunya...Category
1970s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Maravillas con Variaciones Acrosticas en el jardin de Miro (Number 22)By Joan MiróLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Joan Miro, Spanish (1893 - 1983) Title: Maravillas con Variaciones Acrosticas en el jardin de Miro (Number 22) Year: 1975 Medium: Lithograph, signed ...Category
1970s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Flying Colors for Braniff Airlines, Lithograph by Alexander CalderBy Alexander CalderLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Alexander Calder, (American, 1898-1976) Title: Flying Colors for Braniff Airlines Year: 1974 Medium: Lithograph, signed in the plate Size: 20 in. x 26 in. (50.8 cm x 66.04 cm...Category
1970s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- 1968 Carzou French Modernist Color Lithograph Louvre Museum ParisBy Jean CarzouLocated in Surfside, FLThis is a hand signed in pencil, vintage, limited edition lithograph modern art print, printed in Switzerland on Rives French art paper in 1968. in shades of blue, green, yellow. Jean Carzou (Armenian: Ժան Գառզու, 1 January 1907 – 12 August 2000) was a French–Armenian artist, painter, and illustrator, whose work illustrated the novels of Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus. Carzou was born Karnik Zouloumian (Armenian: Գառնիկ Զուլումեան) in Aleppo, Syria to an Armenian family. Carzou later created his name from the first syllables of his name and surname, and added a Parisian nickname, "Jean". He was educated in Cairo, Egypt before moving to Paris in 1924 to study architecture. Carzou belonged to the art movement called "La Jeune Peinture" ("Young Picture") of the School of Paris, with painters like Bernard Buffet, Yves Brayer, Jansem, Jean Carzou, Louis Vuillermoz, Pierre-Henry, Daniel du Janerand, Gaston Sébire, Paul Collomb, Jean Monneret, Jean Joyet and Gaëtan de Rosnay. He started working as a theater set decorator but quickly realized he preferred drawing and painting. In 1938, more than a hundred exhibitions of his works were organized in Paris, in the French provinces and abroad. In 1949, he received the coveted Hallmark prize. Carzou, like his contemporaries Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso was part of a generation that witnessed many wars and was deeply affected by it. Carzou made his first lithograph in 1951 and was prolific in both the lithographic and etching medium. He had solo exhibitions throughout the world and was elected to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1977. In 1952, he created costumes and sceneries for Les Indes Galantes of Rameau at the Opéra de Paris. He continued with Le Loup (1953) for "Les Ballets" of Roland Petit, Giselle (1954) and Athalie (1955) at the Opéra and "La Comédie française". Carzou mastered a number of mediums, though his line drawing and engraving would become well known as illustrations for some of the 20th century's most revered writers, including Hemingway, Albert Camus, Ionesco and Rimbaud. Carzou produced stunning work of painted glass and porcelain, in pencils, gauche and pastels as well as oil painting, often choosing to work on textured or irregular fabrics and papers rather than traditional canvas. Carzou was elected a member of the Institut de France, Académie des beaux-arts, succeeding in the seat left vacant by the death of painter Jean Bouchaud in 1977. He was also awarded the National Order of Merit of France. Among his closest friends were the painters Daniel du Janerand, Gabriel Deschamps, Louis Vuillermoz, Pierre-Henry, André Vignoles, Pierre Gaillardot, Rodolphe Caillaux...Category
1960s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Otmar Alt, Abstract Art Print, hand signed and numbered.By Otmar AltLocated in Berlin, DEOtmar Alt, abstract art print, hand signed and numbered. Dimensions with frame. Includes certificate of authenticity.Category
20th Century Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Composition - Lithograph - 20th CenturyLocated in Roma, ITComposition is a beautiful original lithography artwork realized by an Anonymous Artist of the XX century. In good conditions. The artwork represents an abstract composition throu...Category
20th Century Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Renowned for His Mobiles, Alexander Calder Was Also Adept at Crafting Modernist Jewelry
There are no sparkling gemstones on this necklace, but its value far exceeds the cost of its materials.
10 Must-Visit American Public Sculptures
Get your dose of Vitamin D while surveying works by the likes of Alexander Calder, Keith Haring and Pablo Picasso.