Stabiles, 1963

Notable for his innovative mobiles (so termed by Marcel Duchamp to describe Calder’s early, mechanized works), Alexander Calder is a renowned sculptor whose works in kinetic art embrace the natural elements and chance.
Among his most celebrated works is the Cirque Calder, a miniature circus crafted from wire, cloth, cork, rubber, string and various other found objects.
Calder’s father was a sculptor himself, but actively wished for his son to forge a career in something other than the arts – Calder studied mechanical engineering and excelled at mathematics, but despite his father’s wishes, Calder forayed into art nevertheless and used his experience of engineering as the basis for his work. Asides from his smaller mobiles, Calder also created a number of monumental sculptures; .125 at JFK Airport, Trois Disques for Expo 67 and Spirale of UNESCO are some of the most notable of these large-scale works.