Alexander Calder
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Sculpture
Alexander Calder Details
o A complete book on Calder's works, paintings, jewelry and his huge sculptures o Accompanies the Palazzo delle Esposizioni exhibition 23 October 2009 to 14 February 2010 in Rome, twenty-five years after the last exhibition in Italy devoted to this American artist A beautiful monograph on the work of Alexander Calder, one of the most celebrated and influential sculptors of our times, whose illustrious career spanned the twentieth century. Famous for his new method of sculpting, which entailed curving and twisting iron wire, he "designed" tri-dimensional figures in space: these were suspended and abstract elements that moved to then regain balance while changing harmony (so-called mobiles). The first mobile was made in 1931 after the artist's encounter with Mondrian.
Reviews
Surprisingly enough, there are very few books available on Calder and this one, the catalogue for a recent exhibition held in Rome, is the best I was able to find on Amazon's. Supervised and edited by the Calder Foundation and its president, Alexander Rower (Calder's grandson), it covers the entire career of the great American artist, but mostly focuses on the early pieces from the "Circus Calder" or the animals series (small wood and wire sculptures) from the 1920's and the 1930's, and also on the early mobiles and stabiles of the 1930's and 50's. The book's quality is enhanced by an interesting text (especially the introductory essay that stresses the importance of our sensitive experience in front of Calder's "sculptures of air" and the interactions in a space shared by the works and ourselves, as viewers) and well-served by excellent reproductions of the works, often full-page. Also noteworthy are a first-hand account of Calder's friendship with the Italian photographer Ugo Mulas and an anthology of Calder's thoughts on his art .One slight criticism: in my opinion, too much importance is given to Calder's painted works(especially his gouaches, which I find rather underwhelming when compared to his sculptures)and not enough space is devoted to the late sculptures of the 1960's and 1970's.