1. Alexander Calder
“My whole theory about art is the disparity (difference) that
exists between form, masses and movement.”
http://calder.org/work/category/hangingmobile.html

3. Alexander Calder, born in 1898, began his career as an
engineer before realising his passion for design and
enrolling in the Art Students League in New York.

5. His work was heavily influenced by the abstract style
and after being invited to join Abstract-creation, an
influencial group of artists, he discovered his ability in
sculpture which he practised by making animals and
props that were moveable for use in his own miniture
circus.

7. In 1931 he began work on his first suspended moving
sculptures, originally moved by a system of cranks and
motors, which were called mobiles (meaning both motion
and motive). Later these mobiles would be powered by the
wind.

9. Alexander Calder's hanging mobiles were mostly made
of aluminum sheet metal, and steel wire. He used hand
tools such as wire cutters, snips, pliers, files, and other
metal working tools to make them. Sometimes he would
join pieces together by using metal rivets, a type of bolt
or pin.

13. Calder constructed his mobiles by first cutting out
random abstract shapes from the sheet metal, filing the
edges to smooth them, and then laying out and
arranging the pieces in different patterns until he found
one that he liked. Then he would connect the pieces
together with wire, starting with the bottom pieces first,
and then moving upwards adding new "branches",
carefully balancing each new piece as he went along.

19. Think about what shapes can you recognize in the work of Calder and
which feelings, emotions or sensation you get from his art/design.