The world-renowned iron sculptor and graphic artist Alexander Calder decisively shaped art history of the 20th century with his innovative sculpture concepts, the poetic "Mobiles".
The engineer, who had left the USA for Paris in 1926, made grotesque figurative works of bent wires in his early artistic days. It was the inspiration through earlier experiments in Cinetics, the Constructivism of particularly Piet Mondrian as well as biomorph-abstract Surrealism of Jean Arp and Joan Miró that brought the development of Alexander Calder's characteristic style underway: The "Mobiles", consisting of iron plates, which were at first in geometric and then in biomorph-abstract shapes, mounted to filigree wire constructions, which would be set into an airy dancing motion by the slightest breeze. Alexander Calder contrasted the innovative airiness of these steel sculptures with the "Stabiles" that powerfully push into space.
Works by Alexander Calder are part of the most renowned international collections and museums.