In the early 1930s, Alexander Calder’s mobiles provided a dynamic, new experience of sculpture that incorporated movement, activating their architectural settings and inviting viewers’ engagement. French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre, once wrote that a Calder mobile is “a pure stream of movement in the same way as there are pure streams of light.” In this video, the High’s Frances B. Bunzl Family Curator of European Art, Claudia Einecke, talks about this amazing work of art and gives a

American artist Alexander Calder (1898–1976) is celebrated for revolutionizing sculpture with his renowned mobiles and stabiles, which range from the miniature to the monumental. "Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection" traces Calder's career over 45 works, highlighting his most important themes, styles, and materials from the 1920s through the 1970s while celebrating the transformative gift to SAM from patrons Jon and Kim Shirley. Experience the unique vision of a modern artist who le

Alone in a tower filled with the world’s largest display of sculptures by Alexander Calder. ✨ In this room filled with moving sculptures by Calder, giant mobiles are suspended in the sky. They turn and dance as you cohabit their space. One of the most extraordinary things about these deceptively gravity-defying objects is that they are supported by a force the size of your thumbnail: a tiny hook. In the mid-1930s, in addition to developing his classic mobiles, Calder began to explore the concept