Alexander Calder
Out of Print
This study, now published in paperback, provides the most complete scholarly account yet published of the life and work of Alexander Calder. The son and grandson of acclaimed public sculptors, Calder was trained as an engineer. Working in Europe during the 1920s, he was exposed to a range of avant-garde art, including Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, Constructivism, and works created at the Bauhaus. These sources, together with Calder's abiding interest in American folk art, were fundamental to the evolution of his wood and wire sculptures, which fundamentally challenged the principles of Western sculpture established in antiquity. Calder's creation of the mobile and stabile, two forms of sculpture that are synonymous with modernism, is also analysed in detail. Including a new plate section and 170 halftones, many published here for the first time, Marter's book is an absorbing study of Calder's special contribution to twentieth-century art and culture.
- Offers the most penetrating analysis of Calder's sculpture to this day
- Considers in detail Calder's incorporation of Bauhaus sculptural concepts, and his indebtedness to engineering and science
- Includes a thorough account of Calder's sculptural innovations
Reviews & endorsements
'Amidst the plethora of text and images in publications on Alexander Calder, Marter's monograph stands out like a beacon, shedding substantial and important scholarly light on the formation of the … artist … Marter has given us the best study of Calder's art to date and one that should serve as a model for all future Calder studies.' Choice
'Comprehensive guide to Calder's life and work benefitting from the author's meetings with the artist and inclusion of unpublished documentation and photographs. An excellent read …'. Burlington Magazine
'Joan Marter has produced what must be the most comprehensive book available about Alexander Calder … it finally plays an important avant-garde artist the attention to which he is due.' The Art Book
Product details
April 1997Paperback
9780521587174
318 pages
216 × 279 × 18 mm
1.06kg
170 b/w illus. 8 colour illus.
Unavailable - out of print April 2004
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Formative years: early drawings and paintings
- 2. First years in Paris: wood and wire sculptures, 1926–1930
- 3. The birth of abstract style
- 4. Calder as choreographer, 1936–1942
- 5. Calder as a public artist:
- 1940s and 1950s
- 6. Late years: monumental works
- Notes
- List of solo exhibitions
- Selected bibliography
- Index.
