Jewelry Artist
alxander calder
Jumi kim
jewelry 1040
instructor : Lorin S. Thunell
ARtist's background
Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor and artist
most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander
Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects. During
his lifetime Calder produced approximately 1,800 pieces of brass, silver, and gold body
ornaments, often embellished with found objects such as beach glass, ceramic shards, and wood.
Calder Jewelry will feature approximately 90 works—bracelets, necklaces, earrings, brooches,
and tiaras—many of which were made as personal gifts for the artist's family and friends. While
Calder's more diminutive avant-garde creations converged closely with the aesthetics of the
modern age, they always remained personal and unmistakably Calder.
Schooling
-In 1915, Calder decided to study mechanical engineering and enrolled at the Stevens Institute of
Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
-In 1918, he joined the Student’s Army Training Corps, Naval Section, at Stevens and was made
guide of the battalion.
-In1919, Calder received a degree from Stevens.
-For the next several years, he held a variety of engineering jobs, including working as a
hydraulics engineer and a draughtsman for the New York Edison Company.
-In June 1922, Calder found work as a mechanic on the passenger ship H. F. Alexander.
-Calder took a job as a timekeeper at a logging camp.
- Shortly after this, Calder decided to move back to New York to pursue a career as an artist.
Why the person became interested in jewelry making
We can understand why he interested in Art when we see the his family Profile. His father,
Alexander Stirling Calder, was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, a
majority of them in Philadelphia. Calder’s grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, was
born in Scotland and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1868. He is best-known for the colossal
statue of William Penn on top of Philadelphia's City Hall tower. Calder’s mother, Nanette
Lederer Calder, was a professional portrait painter who studied at the Académie Julian and the
Sorbonne in Paris from around 1888 until 1893. In 1902, at the age of four, he completed his
earliest sculpture, a clay elephant.
Alexander Calder was a sculptor, painter, printmaker, designer, and performance artist. Then
why he interested in jewelry? He made jewelry at first time that is bracelet by hammered brass
for his future. In 1930 she wrote to her mother, “Sandy appreciates and enjoys the things in life
that most people haven’t the sense to notice… He has tremendous originality, imagination, and
humor, which …make life colorful and worthwhile.” In that year Calder gave Louisa an
engagement ring he made in gold. So i think he made jewelry for family members and friends,
such as peggy Guggenheim and Georgia O'Keeffe, and exhibited his jewelry in gallery
exhibitions, avoiding precious materials to keep the works affordable.
Style of the artist
In 1909, when Calder was in the fourth grade, he sculpted a dog and a duck out of sheet brass as
Christmas gifts for his parents. The sculptures were three dimensional and the duck was kinetic
because it rocked when gently tapped. These sculptures are frequently cited as early examples of
Calder’s skill .
Calder designed and produced more than 1800 works of jewelry, including hundreds of gifts for
LouisaHe consciously referenced primitive art and Surrealism in many of the designs that often
appear to be small studies for sculpture or drawings in wire.
Where can we see the a collection of masterpieces
Calder Jewelry commences the Centennial Year of the Grand Rapids Art Museum (1910–2010),
recalling Calder’s historic association with the Museum during the 1969 installation of La
Grande Vitesse.
A combination of sculpture, craft, and design, the 100 necklaces, rings, bracelets, and brooches
created from the 1930s through the 1960s introduce a new dimension of Alexander Calder’s
artistic achievement.
These works embody the same humor and invention as his mobiles that came to life as they
moved.
The exhibition is co-organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, and the
Calder Foundation, New York. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is the final venue for this
exhibition, which has been presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; and San Diego Museum of Art,
California.
ARtist's background, Schooling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/alexander_Calder -Wikipedia
Why the person became interested in jewelry making
http://www.gallerybiba.com/artists/alexander_calder2.php
-Gallery BIBA(Modern & Contemporary ART)
Style of the artist,
Where can we see the a collection of masterpieces
http://www.artmuseumgr.org/home/page/Calder+Jewelry
-Grand Rapids Art Museum Site-Calder Jewelry