Alexander Calder: Avant-garde in Motion

Alexander Calder is one of the most important—and most popular—American artists of the twentieth century. This lavishly illustrated volume accompanies an exhibit at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf that focuses on Calder’s works of the 1930s and ’40s, a period in which the sculptor experimented with a number of wildly different artistic directions.

In addition to showcasing a large number of Calder’s early abstract sculptures, this book also presents key works by his contemporaries, artists such as Piet Mondrian, Joan Miró, and Jean Arp. By setting Calder’s work alongside that of other artists, the volume establishes not only lines of influence and differentiation, but also the larger context in which he created his sculptures. Beautiful full-page images of Calder’s iconic mobiles and stabiles give a rare sense of Calder’s often playful use of space, and enable readers to study his work in detail. An accompanying DVD includes historical and experimental films, avant-garde music, interviews, and a walk through the exhibition, bringing the whole of Calder’s achievement to life in unprecedented fashion.