Wednesday, June 27, 2012

CALDER

&
HIS MOBILES

This one is the largest in the museum and spans 76 feet and it moves with the change of air flow in the museum, really amazing. It was Calder's last design before he died.
Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing abstract sculptures he called "mobiles". A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. The objects hanging from the rods balance each other, so that the rods remain more or less horizontal. Each rod hangs from only one string, which gives it freedom to rotate about the string. Mobiles are popular in the nursery, where they hang over cribs to give infants something to entertain them and give them external visual stimulation. Mobiles have inspired many composers, including Morton Feldman and Earle Brown who were inspired by Alexander Calder's mobiles to create mobile-like indeterminate pieces. Frank Zappa also claimed that his compositions were modelled on Calder mobiles.

Here are some more from the Colder gallery room, I was amazed by the awesome shadows they produced with multiple strategic lighting as they all moved around. 
 East Building- National Gallery of Art 

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