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Alexander Calder in Focus: Works from the Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan

Images

A mobile sculpture resembles a cat with a red face.

Alexander Calder, Chat-mobile (Cat Mobile), 1966. Painted sheet metal and steel wire; 20 x 26 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66 x 66 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan, EL1995.10. © 2013 Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

About

These works from 1927 to 1968, mostly from the Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan, include examples of Calder's mobiles, stabiles, drawings, and paintings. Calder combined colorful shapes abstracted from nature—snowflakes, birds, and animals—with an interest in mechanics to create whimsical, hanging mobiles that move with air currents. His explorations of both geometric and organic shapes have distinguished him as an innovator of art that responds to its physical environment. Alexander Calder in Focus provides an opportunity to look at how the seminal artist's ideas developed throughout his 50-year career.

This exhibition is organized by Curatorial Assistant Julie Rodrigues.