Alexander Calder

From the invention of the mobile to the creation of outdoor sculpture on a grand scale in bolted steel plate, the American artist Alexander Calder (1898–1976) profoundly transformed the histor y of modern art. Writing in 1933, Calder asked: “Why not plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translator y or rotar y motion but several motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing to make a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors or forms, so one can compose motions.”