“The shape´s sense which underlies in my work has been the Universe´s system… the idea of floating bodies in the space, of different sizes and densities, and different colors and temperatures… it looks to me the ideal source of the shapes”.
Galería Elvira González present a selection of works by the American artist Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976). It will exhibit a remarkable selection of his works including mobiles, standing-mobiles, gouaches, wire sculpture and jewelry.
Alexander Calder is one of the most influential artists of the XX century. His work expanded the boundaries of sculpture. He achieved a real revolution of this genre. Movement, lightness, sensibility when using simple materials, the creation of a moving sculpture that needs no pedestal, gravity and balance… These are some of the are pioneering concepts that he developed throughout all his career.
First abstract works were extremely delicate compositions of two or three wire elements and small wood spheres describing spherical or triangular spaces sculpture. These drove him in 1932 to create works with a system of cranks named “mobiles” by Marcel Duchamp. Calder declared “I’ve always liked to do small works with my hands. One day when I went to visit Mondrian, and when I saw his canvas, I felt like doing animated painting. Forms moving. He also experimented with non-moving abstract forms creating works named stabiles by the artist Jean Arp.
In 1937 he had his first solo show at Pierre Matisse Gallery “Stabiles and Mobiles”. Calder defined the concept of his works: Why art has to be static? What you see is an abstraction, sculpted or painted, a highly passionate combination of planes, spheres, nucleus, without the minimum meaning. It might be perfect, but it will always remain moveless. The next in sculpture is movement.
