Alexander Calder in Focus

About

Alexander Calder’s mobiles, stabiles, drawings, and paintings are on view in this small exhibition presented annually at the MCA. These works, drawn primarily from the Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan and dating from 1927–1968, demonstrate the artist’s development throughout his 50-year career. Calder combined colorful shapes taken from nature, such as snowflakes, birds, and animals, with an interest in mechanics to create whimsical 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. Though Calder began his career as an artist focused on drawing and painting, he is best known for creating stabiles, mobiles, and large-scale sculptures of natural forms simplified into dynamic, often whimsical creatures.

This exhibition is organized by Pamela Alper Associate Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm.