Playing Calder
©kMadisonMooreMkM
11 x 14 inches Oil on Canvas
Art within Art Series
I have been wanting to do a composition on Calder and it has really been a challenge. He uses mostly primary colors and very simplistic design so you would think it would be easy! With research and finding that Calder invented the Mobile and many other toys and large sculptures, the word "Playing" just stuck in my head. In this composition the mobile suspends playfully from the ceiling above one of Calder's Sculptures downsized. The original, is Huge! Playing in the paint to create this piece brought to mind "playing" music so this is where the huge Baby Grand Piano came in on the floor, almost a carpet effect with the objects floating upon it. My way of "playing" in the painting! Oh boy...where do these thoughts come from! Enjoy!
Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created Paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects. Calder was born in Lawton Pennsylvania, on July 22, 1898.
The Cirque Calder can be seen as the start of Calder's interest in both wire sculpture and kinetic art. He maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures and utilized these to develop the kinetic sculptures Duchamp would ultimately dub as "mobiles", a French pun meaning both "mobile" and "motive." He designed some of the characters in the circus to perform suspended from a thread. However, it was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrain that lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and pulleys.
Two months after his death, Calder was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, by President Gerald Ford. However, representatives of the Calder family boycotted the January 10, 1977 ceremony "to make a statement favoring amnesty for Vietnam War draft registers.
The Cirque Calder can be seen as the start of Calder's interest in both wire sculpture and kinetic art. He maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures and utilized these to develop the kinetic sculptures Duchamp would ultimately dub as "mobiles", a French pun meaning both "mobile" and "motive." He designed some of the characters in the circus to perform suspended from a thread. However, it was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrain that lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and pulleys.
Two months after his death, Calder was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, by President Gerald Ford. However, representatives of the Calder family boycotted the January 10, 1977 ceremony "to make a statement favoring amnesty for Vietnam War draft registers.
Wonderful painting, Madison. Full of whimsy, movement and color! Love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Maria.
ReplyDeleteM:)