Mercury Fountain

In 1937 Calder created the Mercury Fountain for the Spanish Pavilion at the World's Fair.  The fountain was designed with real mercury and is today housed behind glass.  It was in the entrance hall, opposite Pablo Picasso's "Guernica", also designed especially for the exhibition. Like Picasso's painting, this sculpture is a political statement, protesting Franco's siege of the Almaden mercury mines during the Spanish Civil War.

El Sol Rojo

Calder was employed to create his largest sculpture "El Sol Rojo" in 1968 for the New Mexico Summer Olympic Games outside of Aztec Stadium in Mexico City.  It stood at 20.5m tall

Flamingo

In the 50s Calder became mainly focused on producing massive monumental sculptures that revolved around the idea of large metal work.  Calder's most known and renound piece of work is probably his "Flamingo" sculpture which is located in Chicago, IL as it stands triumphantly in the middle of Federal Plaza.  The"Flamingo"like other pieces of his work is brightly colored (red), simplistic yet abstract in design, and was created to express great emotion.

Devil Fish

Devil fish was a piece created by Calder in what was called his "War Years" and was a reaction to World War II.  It is made from sheet metal, bolts, and paint.  This was his first attempt at a large bolted stabile sculpture and it was created entirely from sheet metal.

Cirque Calder

In 1926 at the request of a Serbian toy merchant Calder began designing a series of toys.  This then lead to the inspiration for his "Cirque Calder" piece which was a miniature circus fashioned from wire, rubber, cloth, and other found objects.  It was made 10 years later in 1936 while Calder lived in Paris. It was designed to be portable as Calder traveled across the seas performing an act that imitated an actual circus on a miniature level.

Throughout the 30s Calder performed his "Cirque Calder" act, but also worked with Martha Graham designing stage sets for her ballets.  He also created a moving stage construction for Eric Satie's "Socrate"

Below is a video of Calder setting up and briefly performing his "Cirque Calder"

Red Mobile

In the middle of his life/career Calder designed a series of "mobiles."  He became most famous for these hanging wire 3D sculptures.  One of the more famous of these pieces was his "Red Mobile."  The "Red Mobile" was a smaller work compared to his larger outdoor metal sculptures.  It was composed of a thin wire connecting several red petals made from cut metals.  Due to its elegance and caused reactions it soon became known as one of Calder's signature works.

Breeze Through Calder

"Early Years": 1898-1930

The time period in which Calder began.  Calder began his career in art and designed a series of smaller pieces and toys as he discovered the art world trying to find his niche.

"Abstraction Years": 1930- 1936

A time when Calder made his complete transition into abstract art discovering/creating the idea of mobiles "moving stationary art."  Most of his art is based around these ideas and structures.

"War Years": 1937-1945

A time period in which Calder's pieces were influenced by the then current World War II and its impact on the world, there for art.

"Prolific Years": 1945-76

This is the period of time where Calder first gained an interest in larger designed monumental sculptures. His monumental sculptures can be seen all over the world outside of stadiums, museums, squares, etc.