About the Artwork
Born in Philadelphia in 1898, Calder has utilized a training as a mechanical engineer in the field of sculpture. In his constructions of metal, wire and wood, he concerns himself with the esthetic value of abstract and geometrical forms, as they move through space in varying orbits and shifting interrelationships. Calder sometimes employs motors to keep the parts in motion. More frequently, as in our Mobile, objects are suspended in space from a series of booms. A large, central form resting on three steel rods supports a wire boom, which in turn supports smaller ones. The suspended forms, of red, yellow, blue and orange, are balanced so delicately that the slightest interference with the equilibrium of the system -- a light touch, a breath of air -- causes these forms to alter their relative positions in space. -Adapted from the Bulletin of the DIA, vol. 26, no. 1 (1947)
Mobile
ca. 1946
Alexander Calder
1898-1976
American
Unknown
Metal, wire, and wood
Overall: 22 1/2 × 18 1/2 inches (57.2 × 47 cm)
Sculpture
Contemporary Art after 1950
Gift of Mrs. Arthur U. Hooper
46.9
© 2005 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Markings
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Provenance
1946-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Bulletin of the DIA 26 (1947): 7, 8 (ill.).
Page, A. Franklin. Modern Sculpture: A Picture Book of Modern Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1950, pp. 40-41 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
© 2005 Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Alexander Calder, Mobile, ca. 1946, metal, wire, and wood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Arthur U. Hooper, 46.9.
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