Mobile: Horizontal Black with Red Sieve

Artist Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976)

Date1957

Dimensions(Approx.) H: 5 1/2 ft. (153.7); L: 9 in. (22.9 cm)

MediumPainted sheet steel and wire.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1960.27

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 07

DescriptionPainted red and black.

Label TextAlexander Calder perfected a new form of abstract sculpture based on motion: the mobile. This invention of the early 20th century marks the maturation of kinetic art, an art form that focuses specifically on movement. Calder assembled metal disks of different shapes and sizes—painted red, blue, yellow, black, or white—and attached them to rods and wires. The resulting delicately balanced construction interacts with the space around it, perpetually reinventing itself as air currents move its elements. The rhythmic patterns—unpredictable and ever-changing—are as important to the overall composition as the shapes themselves and require a certain amount of time to witness. Calder’s incorporation of chance, time, playfulness, and humor into his mobiles liberated and significantly influenced succeeding 20th-century artists. See Stegosaurus, one of Calder’s “stabiles” (a non-moving sculpture), on the Museum’s Monroe Street terrace.Published ReferencesToledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 5, no. 3, Autumn 1962, p. 70, repr.

Lee, Katharine C., "Modern Art," Toledo Museum News, vol. 11, no. 4, Autumn 1968, p. 98, repr.

Ocvirk, Otto G., et al., Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice, 3rd ed., Dubuque, 1975, p. 127, repr. fig. 167.

Wankelman, Willard F. and Philip Wigg, A Handbook of Arts and Crafts, Madison, 1993, 8th ed., repr. p. 257.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, What is Modern Art?, 1960.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Saint Louis Art Museum; Toledo Museum of Art; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Art, 1995-1996, p. 173, repr. (col.).