Calder - Softcover

Baal-Teshuva, Jacob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3822876429 ISBN 13: 9783822876428

Publisher: TASCHEN, 1999

Synopsis

<div id="description_text_headlines"><div><strong>The man who put the swing into sculpture</strong></div><div>&#160;</div></div><div id="description_text">When the final tally of key movers in the plastic arts of this century is compiled, there is no doubt that maestro of movement Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the man who put the swing into sculpture, will be near numero uno. Calder took it off the plinth, gave it to the wind, and left us kinetic playgrounds of the spirit. He operated at the point where Modernity and nature fused, developing an environmental art that changed the medium forever. Visiting his Paris atelier in 1932, Duchamp coined the term &#34;Mobiles&#34; for Calder`s delicate wire and disc pieces, constructions that would soon become immensely popular.<br><br>But he didn&#8217;t rest on his innovations. Friends with Miro, Mondrian and Leger, Calder also turned his hand to painting, drawing, gouaches, toys, textiles and utensil design. A graphic master who sketched as much in air as in ink, the Sixties and Seventies saw Calder take on the monumental, translating the dynamics of cities into both his Mobiles and &#34;Stabiles&#34;. At a time when sculpture was perceived to be the antithesis of movement, Calder unmade gravity and freed the elements in a body of work that is still sending a wind of change through the art world today.</div><div>&#160;</div><div id="series_text" style="display: block;"><strong>About the Series:</strong><br>Each book in TASCHEN&#8217;s Basic Art Series features:<ul><li>a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance</li><li>a concise biography</li><li>approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions</li></ul></div>

About this title

About the Author

Jacob Baal-Teshuva, born 1929, is author, critic and independent curator of museum shows. He studied at the Hebrew university in Jerusalem and the New York University. His numerous publications include works on Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Jacob Baal-Teshuva lives and works in New York and Paris.

Reviews

In art, mobile and Alexander Calder are synonymous. Indeed, without Calder, mobile might not be an art term at all. His constructions of brightly colored, flat metal shapes, some or all of which are suspended so that any current of air can move them, constitute a body of modern artwork that is genuinely popular as well as famous. They revive in adults the delighted fascination of an infant with shiny objects dangled just beyond its grasp. It is no surprise, then, to learn from Baal-Teshuva's enthusiastic sketch of Calder that he made toys, at first for his sister, when as young as eight and . . . never stopped. (Another nonsurprise is that his friend Miroinfluenced him; many Calder pieces would fit perfectly into a roomful of Miros.) He also made stabiles, or stable sculptures, paintings, and jewelry. A great many examples in all his characteristic media appear in splendid color in this paperback, which has to be one of the great current bargains among art books. Snap it up! Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: TASCHEN
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3822876429
• ISBN 13: 9783822876428
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96