Calder Foundation

Assembled Bits of Wood

Date 1935
Media
Wood, sheet metal, wire, and paint
Dimensions
20 5⁄8" × 16" × 6"
Collection
Calder Foundation, New York; Mary Calder Rower Bequest, 2011
Historical Photos  1
Related exhibitions  1
Dominique Lévy Gallery, New York (2015)

Dominique Lévy Gallery, New York. Alexander Calder: Multum in Parvo. 22 April–13 June 2015.

Solo Exhibition
Works / Standing Mobile 270
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.”