Art Index: Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder (Lawton, Pennsylvania, USA, July 22, 1898 – New York, USA, November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor best known for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic and his monumental public sculptures.

Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

Born into a family of artists, Calder's work first gained attention in Paris in the 1920s and was soon championed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, resulting in a retrospective exhibition in 1943. Major retrospectives were also held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1964) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974).

Calder's work is in many permanent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He produced many large public works, including .125 (at JFK Airport, 1957), Pittsburgh (Carnegie International prize winner 1958, Pittsburgh International Airport) Spirale (UNESCO in Paris, 1958), Flamingo and Universe (both in Chicago, 1974), and Mountains and Clouds (Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 1996).

Ugo Mulas - Alexander Calder,Saché, 1963. Ugo Mulas ©Eredi Ugo Mulas

Although primarily known for his sculpture, Calder also created paintings and prints, miniatures (such as his famous Cirque Calder), theater set design, jewelry design, tapestries and rugs, and political posters.[1] He was honored by the US Postal Service with a set of five 32-cent stamps in 1998, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously in 1977, after refusing to receive it from Gerald Ford one year earlier in protest of the Vietnam War.

An important Calder work is the monumental "Floating Clouds" (1952-1953) of the Aula Magna (Central University of Venezuela) of the University City of Caracas in Venezuela. This work is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Calder's clouds were specially designed to combine art and technology, making the auditorium one of the top 5 university auditoriums in the world by sound quality.

Auction Results

According to Artprice.com, the turnover of Alexander Calder's artwork in 2019 is worth $50.6 million dollars with 468 lots sold, but the price evolution in 2019 is less 7.4% . $100 invested in a work by Alexander Calder in 2000 would be worth an average of $499 (+ 399%) in December 2020.

Turnover for Calder’s work 2000/2020, source artprice.net

Number of lots sold 2000/2020, source artprice.net

Records 2000/2020, source artprice.net

The first buyers of Calder’s works are Americans with 4083 pieces for 707 million dollars, followed by France (1027 pieces/47,9 millions dollars) Germany (412 pieces/2 million dollars) and Italy (129 pieces for 1,9 million dollars).

Sotheby’s New York just sold Mariposa, a stunning 3x3 mobile sculpture on December 8th for $15.6 million dollars (estimation was 6/8 millions).

Mariposa, 1951, Mobile (sheet metal, rod and paint) - 317.5 x 309.89 cm © 2020 Calder Foundation, New York / ADAGP, Paris