1. Alexander Calder 1898 - 1976 Art Masterpiece – Lesson 6

2. About the Artist Born in 1898 in Pennsylvania. Studied Mechanical Engineering in He began working at various jobs Drafter Logger Riverboat firefighter

3. About the Artist He started to study drawing and painting at the Art Students League in New York City He moved to Paris and began producing amusing animates from paper, rags, wire and wood. His friends described him as a curious, quiet, likeable man whose hands and thoughts were always in motion. He died in New York in 1976.

4. About the Artist "The universe is real but you can't see it. You have to imagine it. Once you imagine it, you can be realistic about reproducing it."

5. Calder’s Art He invented the mobile and stabile A stabile is an abstract sculpture similar to a mobile but made to be stationary He made motorized and hand-cranked sculptures First artist to make sculpture move. During his career, he produced more than 17,000 works. Do you think these can move?

6. Calder’s Art His large arching sculptures are found in parks and plazas across the world.

7. Vocabulary Definitions Kinetic Sculpture A sculpture that moves or has moving parts. The motion may come from the forces of air, gravity, electricity, etc. Lines Continuous marks with length and direction A line can vary in length, width, direction, curvature and color. Lines can be Two-dimensional (a pencil line on paper), Three-dimensional (wire) Implied Motion

8. Stabile Example What do these stabiles remind you of?

9. Mobile Examples How do these mobiles make you feel?

10. Alexander Calder - Cowboy on Horse This is a wood, leather, cloth, cork and string kinetic sculpture The artist spent much of his career creating sculptures of characters and acts in the circus. The sculpture can be moved in a number of ways.

11. Alexander Calder - Cowboy on a Horse

12. Alexander Calder - Elephant

13. What We Will Be Doing Determine what kinds of animals you would like to create. (Four- legged are best.) Imagine you have x-ray vision and draw just the bones of an animal on your paper. (Like dog example) Use pipe cleaners to recreate the animal in your drawings. It is important to start with one pipe cleaner and then twist on the next ones as you need them. Cutting the pipe cleaner into smaller pieces makes the artwork flimsy. You need to have a fluid continuous line in order to make the structure substantial. Try to show movement in your pieces. After everyone is done, we will try to guess the animal and the action of each other’s sculpture.

14. Pipe Cleaner Dog