Alexander Calder: "Granddaddy" of American Bricolage

Circus  being constructed

Circus, 1926-1931, Whitney Museum of American Art
wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper & other objects
54 x 94 x 94"

Mobile, pour Vilar, 1952, 6 ft long,
From the estate of French Actor Jean Vilar
Sold to a private collection in 2010 for 2.3 million euros

Alexander Calder began his career by using wire and small found objects to create a miniature circus while he studied art in Paris. The cluttered circus ring competes with the bendable figures and plays with the ideas of excitement and daring performance.  Calder followed that with wire sculpture, the first of which was a sculpture of Josephine Baker, an American singer in Paris in the 1920s.  He began to hang nonrepresentational creations with wire and used motors to create movement.  Eventually the sculptures were allowed to hang free and move with the breeze.  The balance and free movement allures and entices viewers as the pieces dance and float.  Marcel Duchamp named them "mobiles," the name still used today.    Encyclopedia.com