ALEXANDER CALDER, AN ARTIST TO LOVE

ALEXANDER CALDER(CLICK)

FROM GOOGLE IMAGE

His friends knew him as Sandy.  He  had the playful mind of a child even after becoming an adult. I guess he is one person who fit Picasso's saying  that every child is an artist, the trick is to continue to be creative like a child when one is grown.  Calder had no problem with staying youthful in his creative spirit and mind.  I have always found him an interesting artist from the first moment I heard of his circus sculptures, Cirque Calder.  Click on arrow below for video of Cirque Calder/The Paris Years(you tube)

Cirque Calder  from google image

Of course I knew of Calder from my college art history classes when we viewed slides of his giant colorful mobiles.  When you memorize a hundred artists a week for a test...you learn to identify a Calder or  a Monet, but I was not taught as much as I had hoped.  I wanted to know so much more...how artist related, why they painted, what they chose what they painted, their life stories and how they connected to the times they lived in.  When I hear of students who were taught in that manner, I am so envious.  I have tried to make it up though the years by  researching more myself.  Many times when I was teaching I introduced artists to young children just so I could learn more with them .  As so it was with Sandy Calder. We made mobiles with the kids and we also learned about the life of this amazing artist.

from google image

from google image

Both of his parents were artists and from a very young age he was given his own workshop to create what ever he wanted.  He parents did not judge, they encouraged. His Father was a well know sculptor who often traveled to set up installations, so Calder lived many places as a child. His Grandfather was a sculptor from Scotland who immigrated to America.  His Mother was a portrait painter trained at the Sorbonne and his wife was an artist as well. 

He went on to study engineering and getting a degree.  But the arts called and he went back to sculpting and creating wire sculptures.  I think some of the most interesting times were the Paris years when he created his circus miniature wire sculptures.  They  actually moved and he put on performances for many dinner parties for artist friends.  He lived in Paris during a time that many American artist did.  They were all drawn to the energy and excitement of what was then known as the art capital of the world.  


If you watch Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris you get a feel for the times and the energy of what it was like for so many artists, poets and intellectuals in Paris at the time.  They met in cafes, bistros and studios to talk over ideas and art theories of the day with much vigor and wine!  It was a magical time!
You might want to check out the Alexander Calder Foundation.(click)