Calder Foundation

Elephant

Date 1936
Media
Sheet metal and paint
Dimensions
27 1⁄2" × 33" × 35"
Collection
Private Collection
Historical Photos  3
Related exhibitions  2
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (1937)

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles. 23 February–13 March 1937.

Solo Exhibition
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1998)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Alexander Calder: 1898–1976. 29 March–12 July 1998.

Solo Exhibition
Works / Hanging Mobile 167
Related Timeline
1930–1936 Shift to Abstraction

Following a visit in October of 1930 to Piet Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed by the environmental installation, Calder made his first wholly abstract compositions and invented the kinetic sculpture now known as the mobile. Coined for these works by Marcel Duchamp in 1931, the word “mobile” refers to both “motion” and “motive” in French. He also created stationary abstract works that Jean Arp dubbed “stabiles.”