Alexander Calder: Motion

“Fernand Léger's film, 'Ballet Mecanique' is the result of the desire for a picture in motion.”

Alexander Calder

1930s - 1950s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture', (1933)

“The two motor driven "mobiles" which I am exhibiting [August, 1933] are from among the more successful of my earliest attempts at plastic objects in motion. The orbits are all circular arcs or circles. The supports have been painted to disappear against a white background to leave nothing but the moving elements..”

Alexander Calder

1930s - 1950s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture', (1933)

Support , Success , Painting

“Therefore, why not plastic forms in motion?... one can compose motions.”

Alexander Calder

1930s - 1950s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture', (1933)

“We notice the movement of automobiles and other beings in the street, but we do not notice that the turning of the earth. We believe that automobiles go at a great speed on a fixed ground; yet the speed of the earth's rotation at the equator is 40,000 km every 24 hours.
As truly serious art must follow the greater laws, and not only appearance, I try to put all the elements in motion in my mobile sculptures. It is a matter of harmonizing these movements, thus arriving at a new possibility for beauty.”

Alexander Calder

Quote of Calder (8 March 1932), in text 'That which moves - On mobile sculptures', unpubl. MS https://web.archive.org/web/20110222045901/http://calder.org:80/historicaltexts/text/5.html, 1932, Calder Foundation Archives, New York
1930s - 1950s

Law , Beauty , Art , Appearance

“The sense of motion in painting and sculpture has long been considered as one of the primary elements of the composition.”

Alexander Calder

1930s - 1950s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture', (1933)

Sense , Painting

“Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude descending the stairs' is the result of the desire for motion. Here he has also eliminated representative form. This avoids the connotation of ideas which would interfere with the success of the main issue - the sense of movement.”

Alexander Calder

1930s - 1950s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture', (1933)
Source: en.wikiquote.org - Alexander Calder / Quotes of Alexander Calder / 1930s - 1950s / Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture', (1933)

Idea , Sense , Success

“Therefore, why not plastic forms in motion? Not a simple translatory or rotary motion but several motions of different types, speeds and amplitudes composing to make a resultant whole. Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions.”

Alexander Calder

1930s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture (1933)

Making love , Color , Speed

“As truly serious art must follow the greater laws, and not only appearances, I try to put all the elements in motion in my mobile sculptures.”

Alexander Calder

1930s, It Shall Move - On Mobile Sculptures (1932)

Appearance , Law , Art

“How can art be realized? Out of volumes, motion, spaces bounded by the great space, the universe. Out of different masses, tight, heavy, middling - indicated by variations of size or color - directional line - vectors which represent speeds, velocities, accelerations, forces, etc...”

Alexander Calder

these directions making between them meaningful angles, and senses, together defining one big conclusion or many. Spaces, volumes, suggested by the smallest means in contrast to their mass, or even including them, juxtaposed, pierced by vectors, crossed by speeds. Nothing at all of this is fixed. Each element able to move, to stir, to oscillate, to come and go in its relationships with the other elements in its universe. It must not be just a fleeting moment but a physical bond between the varying events in life. Not extractions, but abstractions. Abstractions that are like nothing in life except in their manner of reacting.
1930s, How Can Art Be Realized? (1932)

Universe , Color , Speed , Art