Calder in Connecticut

by Alexander S.C. Rower, Eric Zafran, Elizabeth Kornhauser

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Editorial Reviews

Perhaps the most influential and best loved of all twentieth-century sculptors, Alexander Calder worked primarily in Connecticut for several decades after settling in a Roxbury farmhouse in 1933. Connecticut provided a richly stimulating creative environment for him in the critical years when he developed his unique mobiles and stabiles and established his artistic reputation. This intimate and engaging portrait of Calder, at work and at play, offers new insight into how his art was shaped by the state's landscape, his home and studio, his family, and the fascinating circle of artists, writers, curators, and collectors who befriended him.

Engaging and authoritative, this visual biography includes many previously unpublished photographs, documents, and reproductions of little-known art works. An account of the home and studio by Alexander S. C. Rower, Calder's grandson, and an affectionate tribute by Calder's neighbor, playwright Arthur Miller, complete the volume, produced in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford.

Customer Reviews

Mobiles and a Whole Lot More., 2000-06-21

Reading this book about Calder's work makes me want to bend a wire clothes hangar into nifty loops and spirals ... just for the fun of it.

Calder's art is BIG TIME fun, on every scale from immense graceful outdoor sculptures to strikingly elegant necklaces and pins. The book shows the variety of his creations...tapestry motifs, silver and brass cutlery, campaign posters. Check out his clever pull toy for a toddler.

Mobiles is probably Calder's most familiar category of work, but his playful menagerie, including a kangaroo, an elephant, a giraffe, a big bird and a flock of origami-size birds is his most endearing.

Photos and narrative, together, convey the wit and warmth of the sculptor. They offer opportunity to meet Calder, his wife, and their circle of friends.

Calder, by fine example, inspires one to lighten up and love it. This book is written permission to do exactly that, be it, high brow, low brow or no-brow.