From the 11th November to the 3rd April 2016, Tate Britain will be exploring the work of Alexander Calder in a new exhibition that reveals how motion and performance were important in the way in which he worked.
Born in Philadelphia as a son and grandson of sculptors, Alexander Calder studied engineering and worked at a variety of different jobs before attending the Art Students League in New York to study painting.
He started to make sculptures, which Duchamp named mobiles and that could be moved by hand or by small electric motors. These pieces were then followed in 1934 by work which were set in motion by air currents.
Calder went on to win the main prize for sculpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale and the First Prize for Sculpture at the 1958 Pittsburgh International.
This new display of his work continues Tate Modern’s reassessment of key figures in modernism and will bring together key works from museums around the world as well as showcasing his collaborative projects in the worlds of film, theatre, music and dance.
The exhibition will bring together approximately 100 works to reveal how Calder was able to turn sculpture from a static object into a continually changing work to be experienced in real time. It will be the UK’s biggest exhibition of Calder’s work and reveals how he was one of the truly ground-breaking artists of the 20th century as well as being a pioneer of kinetic sculpture.
Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture opens to the public on the 11th November and will be available to see until the 3rd April. Tickets to the exhibition cost £18 (£16.30 without donation) and concessions are available.