Christmas Is All Around Us

If you’ve been to google today, you may have noticed the funny little figure above the search bar. And if your browser is hip enough, you may have seen the funny little figure slowly rotating. This nifty feat of programming is google’s homage to Alexander Calder, who was born today 113 years ago.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, “Oh yeah, Calder, the guy who makes those mobiles. Big deal, that is so Art History 101.”

The fact is, I first became familiar with some of Calder’s works when I was ten years old, and wasn’t terribly impressed at the time. It’s easy to take for granted the fact that someone, somewhere, actually had to invent the mobile. What did babies do before the early 20th century? But now I know, with no small amount of humility, that Calder was making kinetic sculptures by the time he was nine. Take that, pompous fifth-graders everywhere!

Calder is one of those artists that I’ve never really taken the time to get to know, but whose artwork is strangely, almost subconsciously influential to me (along with most Modern and Post-modern artists of all types). Far beyond the invention of the tranquil, slowly spinning mobiles that hang in the stairwells and lobbies of all the most prestigious art museums, Calder was prolific and whimsical in ways that most people haven’t had the opportunity to appreciate.

Take, for example, these Calder drawings:

So simple and striking that you probably think your children could have made it. But your children didn’t, and neither did you—Calder did, and now he’s hugely famous.

I, for one, think they are beautiful, even in their apparent simplicity. Especially in their apparent simplicity.

Calder was a linear type of guy, which I really dig. Even when making sculptures out or wire and steel, he was essentially just drawing in three dimensions. He had a thing for fish..

…and faces…

Until more recently Calder was lesser known for his jewelry. You had to be a real art insider to know enough to appreciate the inexpensive pieces that Calder sold or gave away to family and friends. Most of his jewelry was exceedingly simple in process, made simply by twisting and bending wire into complicated shapes and curlicues. No welding or soldering necessary in Calder’s world.

Some of his more elaborate pieces are downright comical, which is exactly what Calder hoped for.

Only Anjelica Huston can pull off a piece like that and still look perfectly dignified.

Above all, it is Calder’s attitude as an artist that appeals to me the most. Calder wanted to make people smile. Calder didn’t want his jewlery ever to be mass produced, because to him the artistic process and the hands-on creation by the artist were paramount. Calder wanted to find value and make beautiful things out of scraps and bits that others thought ugly. Calder emerged way before his time, influencing many of the artists of the ’60s, but really getting his creative start way before any of the other Modernists.

Calder, you are an inspiration, and a hidden gem among the run-of-the-mill Art History 101 crowd. I hope this blog gives you a little bit more of the credit that is due to you, because you are fantastic. Happy 113th Birthday.