Alexander Calder was born in 1898 to a family of renowned sculptors in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. He studied in the Art Student League and worked as an illustrator aftergraduation.

 

He is said to be the "founder of moving sculpture" because he invented the "hanging mobile". Hebroke new ground in incorporating gravity itself into design and pioneered a group of movingworks of art later called "kinetic art."When he moved to Paris after World War I, he created abstract sculptures using wires. His wire sculpture "Circus" attracted avant-garde artists such as Joan Miró and Jean Cocteau to the masses, and took this opportunity to join the ranks of leading artists.

 

His prominent work is the mobile ".125" made for New York's Idol Wild Airport, now John F. Kennedy International Airport),in 1957, Other prominent works include the large staville "La Grand Vitez" installed in the square of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1969, and the staville "Flamingo" made for the federal building in Chicago in 1974.

Calder died on November 11th at his second daughter's house in New York shortly after the opening of a major retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in October 1976. Calder was working on his third plane paint, "Tribute to Mexico," for Braniff Airlines. He also had just finished the Hart Senate office building Staville and Mobile in Washington, D.C.