Calder: Sculpting Time
The introduction of movement into sculpture. That implausible leap from the static to the temporal. Alexander Calder, the inventor of the mobile, achieved what the great Hellenistic sculptors could only suggest in the windblown robe and fluttering wings of Nike of Samothrace. He broke the mold. Jean Paul Sartre described Calder’s mobiles as “mid-way between matter and life”. They are a composition of motions, a series of fleeting moments where balance, force and tension coexist in perfect harmony. Calder: Sculpting Time (published by Silvana Editorial, $50.00) covers MASILugano’s ambitious exhibition in 168 pages, highlighting his most prolific era, the 1930s to 1960s.