Calder-isms

A dazzling collection of quotations from the modern American artist whose mobiles are beloved worldwide

Calder-isms is a collection of fascinating, irreverent, and often profound quotations from the influential modern American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898–1976), who is most famous for his invention of what his friend Marcel Duchamp dubbed the “mobile.” Often suspended from ceilings, these sculptures feature abstract elements, frequently painted in bold colors, that move and balance in changing harmony. Calder’s art was dynamic, unconventional, and filled with vitality—qualities also displayed by his words, which combine the wisdom of a philosopher with the ingenuity of a true original. Taken from interviews, writings, and other sources, the quotations in Calder-isms offer memorable insights into Calder’s life, mind, and, above all, art.

• “Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an intensely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect, but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion.”
• “That visit to Mondrian gave me the shock that converted me. It was like the baby being slapped to make his lungs start working.”
• “[A mobile] has no utility and no meaning. It is simply beautiful. It has a great emotional effect if you understand it. Of course if it meant anything it would be easier to understand, but it would not be worthwhile.”
• “A title is just like the license plate on the back of a car. You use it to say which one you’re talking about.”
• “People think monuments should come out of the ground, never out of the ceiling, but mobiles can be monumental too.”
• “Bad taste always boomerangs.”

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) was an American artist best known for the invention of kinetic sculptures known as mobiles and static sculptures known as stabiles. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Larry Warsh has been active in the art world for more than thirty years as a publisher and artist-collaborator. He is the editor of many books, including Abramović-isms, Basquiat-isms, Haring-isms, Holzer-isms, Ono-isms, Warhol-isms, and Weiwei-isms (all Princeton).