Alexander Calder
6 Dots Over a Mountain (1956)
Denver Botanic Gardens, 2017
Photograph by Scott Dressel-Martin
This large dynamic installation < Six Dots Over a Mountain > is currently housed in the sculpture park of The Seattle Art Museum. Alexander Calder used metal blades, balance rods, and aerodynamics to allow the sculpture to continuously change its posture with just a gentle breeze. “The potential sense of form in my work is the cosmic system, which serves as the source of creation; it is vast and unique.”
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was an American sculptor, known as the father of mobile sculpture and one of the most influential innovators in 20th-century modern art. He graduated from the mechanical engineering department of the Polytechnic Institute in 1919 and later studied painting, establishing a dual foundation of “engineering + art.”Caldertransformed mechanical balance, natural forces, and cosmic order into poetic visuals, pioneering Kinetic Art with sculptures that utilize manual, wind-driven, motorized, and directly suspended styles, successfully entering the spatial realm of modern public environments. His visual style was significantly influenced by Piet Mondrian, characterized by abstract geometry, primary colors, black and white, minimalistic yet childlike.
