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Well Sweep, 1936

Work

Well Sweep

Date 1936
Media
Sheet metal and paint
Dimensions
22' high; 15' diam.
Collection
The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Bequest of James Thrall Soby, 1979
Monumental Sculpture, Standing Mobile
Historical Photos  2
Well Sweep (1936)
Well Sweep at James Thrall Soby's home in Farmington, Connecticut, 1936Photograph by James Thrall Soby © Calder Foundation, New York
Well Sweep at James Thrall Soby’s home in Farmington, Connecticut, 1936
Photograph by James Thrall Soby
Well Sweep (1938)
Calder with Well Sweep (1936) at James Thrall Soby's home in Farmington, Connecticut, 1938Photograph by Herbert Matter © Calder Foundation, New York
Calder with Well Sweep (1936) at James Thrall Soby’s home in Farmington, Connecticut, 1938
Photograph by Herbert Matter
Archive
Works / Monumental Sculpture 218
Five Rods and Nine Discs (1936)
Five Rods and Nine Discs, 1936
Devil Fish (1937)
Devil Fish, 1937
Big Bird (1937)
Big Bird, 1937
Spherical Triangle (1938)
Spherical Triangle, 1938
Works / Standing Mobile 270
Petit Panneau Bleu (c. 1936)
Petit Panneau Bleu, c. 1936
Apple Monster (1938)
Apple Monster, 1938
The Spider and the Fly (c. 1938)
The Spider and the Fly, c. 1938
Untitled (maquette for 1939 New York World’s Fair) (1938)
Untitled (maquette for 1939 New York World's Fair), 1938
Related Timeline
1930–1936
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.”