Calder Foundation
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4 Woods, 1936

Work

4 Woods

Date 1936
Media
Walnut, sheet metal, and steel pins
Dimensions
30 1⁄2" × 17 3⁄4" × 19 1⁄4"
Collection
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Frederick Brown Fund, 1960
Stabile
Historical Photos  1
Installation drawing of 21 objects in Mobiles and Objects by Alexander Calder (1936)
Installation drawing of 21 objects in Mobiles and Objects by Alexander Calder, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1936Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Installation drawing of 21 objects in Mobiles and Objects by Alexander Calder, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1936Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Related exhibitions  1
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
Archive
Works / Stabile 251
Gibraltar (1936)
Gibraltar, 1936
Devil Fish (1937)
Devil Fish, 1937
Big Bird (1937)
Big Bird, 1937
Untitled (1938)
Untitled, 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.”