Alexander CalderDerriere Le Miroir-No. 190-Page 91971
1971
About the Item
- Creator:Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976, American)
- Creation Year:1971
- Dimensions:Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Width: 11 in (27.94 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Fairlawn, OH
- Reference Number:
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: Fairlawn, OH
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 10 days of delivery.
- La Pique (The Pike)By Pablo PicassoLocated in Fairlawn, OHLa Pique (The Pike) Lithograph, 1950 Original lithograph drawn with chalk and "frottage textures" transferred to stone, 1950. Unsigned printer's proof Inscribed on the verso in Mourl...Category
1950s French School Animal Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Eloignement (Remoteness)By Arthur Luiz PizaLocated in Fairlawn, OHEloignement (Remoteness) Etching, aquatint and engraving, 1990 Signed lower right corner (see photo) Numbered lower left corner (see photo) Edition: 99 (28/99) Publisher: Jacqueline ...Category
1990s French School Abstract Prints
MaterialsAquatint
- Composition rouge orangéBy Arthur Luiz PizaLocated in Fairlawn, OHComposition rouge orangé Etching, Aquatint, and Engraving, 1990 Signed "Piza" lower right corner (see photo) Edition: 99 Numbered 96/99 lower left corner (see photo) Publisher blinds...Category
1990s French School Abstract Prints
MaterialsAquatint
- Plate I, Le Cocu MagnifiqueBy Pablo PicassoLocated in Fairlawn, OHPlate I, Le Cocu Magnifique Etching, 1968 From: Le Cocu Magnifique Unsigned as issued in the portfolio The set of 12 etching & aquatints is signed by Picasso on the justification pa...Category
1960s French School Figurative Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Cover for DLM No. 173By Alexander CalderLocated in Fairlawn, OHCover for DLM No. 173 Color lithograph, 1968 Unsigned as issued in DLM Published in Derriere le Miroir (Behind the Mirror), called DLM From: DLM No. 173, published October 1968, whic...Category
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate IVBy Wifredo LamLocated in Fairlawn, OHEl Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate IV Color lithograph, 1976 Signed and numbered in pencil (see photos) From: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Ultimo viaie del buque Fantasma (The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship (1868), 12 illustration by Wilfredo Lam Edition: 99 (6/99) This one of an edition of 99 from the deluxe edition of the book of the same title There was an additional edition of 200 books, signed and numbered on the justification page Publisher: Poligrafa, Barcelona Printer: Poligrafa, Barcelona The Gabriel Garcia Marquez/Lam book is an illustrated version of the short story, a man recalls the night during his boyhood when an enormous passenger ship went aground in his small town on the shores of the Caribbean. It is considered a Latin American masterpiece of surrealism and transculturation. (See below analysis of the story) Condition: slight yellows (aging) of paper small paper scuffs verso from previous hinges Sheet size: 22 x 29 7/8 inches About the author and the storyline of the book by Marquez: Gabriel García Márquez was born in 1927, he is a famous Colombian writer, novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist. In 1982 he received the Novel Prize for Literature. He is an author sometimes inherently related to magical realism and his best-known work is the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude in which we find this literary genre. Summary of "The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship" (1868): The novel by Gabriel García Márquez, The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship, written in 1968, is written in a single great sentence, which tells the surprising and amazing adventure that has changed the existence of a child living in a coastal town with a small port sunny, almost forgotten by civilization. The days are peaceful, the nights are silent and illuminated only by the rotating beacon that, every fifteen seconds, transforms the town into a lunar camp with phosphorescent houses. During one night in March, the boy saw an immense afterlife ship that sails through the seas with all the dead crew and sometimes appears to the living, silently crossing the deserted sea, a huge and unexpected mass whose trajectory suddenly it seems to drift, and then runs aground on the reefs. This cataclysm is accomplished without disturbing the night's silence, and the next day the boy found no traces of the shipwreck and no one believed it, not even his mother. Time passes, and the same shipwreck occurs again, every year, on the same night in March; the adolescent...Category
1970s Surrealist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Persian, French antique 19th century Racinet art design lithograph printLocated in Melbourne, Victoria'Persian - Persan - Persisch' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Albert Racinet's 'L' Ornement Po...Category
Late 19th Century French School Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Indian-Persian, French antique 19th century Racinet art design lithograph printLocated in Melbourne, Victoria'Indian-Persian - Indo-Persian - Indisch-Persisch' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Albert Raci...Category
Late 19th Century French School Interior Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Roman-Byzantine, French antique 19th century Racinet art design lithograph printLocated in Melbourne, Victoria'Roman-Byzantine - Romano-Byzantin - Romisch-Byzantinisch' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Alb...Category
Late 19th Century French School Interior Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Persian, French antique 19th century Racinet art design lithograph printLocated in Melbourne, Victoria'Persian - Persan - Persisch' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Albert Racinet's 'L' Ornement Po...Category
Late 19th Century French School Interior Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Middle Ages, French antique 19th century Racinet art design lithograph printLocated in Melbourne, Victoria'Middle Ages - Moyen-Age - Mittel Alter' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Albert Racinet's 'L' ...Category
Late 19th Century French School Interior Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Middle Ages, French antique 19th century Racinet art design lithograph printLocated in Melbourne, Victoria'Middle Ages - Moyen-Age - Mittel Alter' Late 19th century interior design chromolithograph, from Racinet’s ‘L’Ornement Polychrome’, 1887. Published in Paris. Albert Racinet's 'L' ...Category
Late 19th Century French School Interior 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.