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109-691: The original art exhibition space was established in 1950 and was soon called the MIT Hayden Gallery , after its location next to the entrance of the Hayden Library for Humanities and Sciences (MIT Building 14). It occupied a space which has now become the Elizabeth Parks Killian Hall, a 140-seat performance space used primarily for solo and chamber music recitals, lectures, and theater readings. An early 1950-1951 exhibition showed mobiles, stabiles, and other artworks by Alexander Calder , in

218-577: A new workshop , overlooking the valley of the Lower Chevrière to the village of Saché in Indre-et-Loire (France). He donated to the town a sculpture , which since 1974 has been situated in the town square. Throughout his artistic career, Calder named many of his works in French, regardless of where they were destined for eventual display. In 1966, Calder published his Autobiography with Pictures with

327-627: A 'by invitation' system; to reserve a section of the Exhibition for foreign artists too; to admit works by uninvited Italian artists, as selected by a jury." The first Biennale , "I Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Città di Venezia (1st International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice)" (although originally scheduled for 22 April 1894) was opened on 30 April 1895, by the Italian King and Queen, Umberto I and Margherita di Savoia . The first exhibition

436-562: A 1.8-acre, indoor-outdoor center dedicated to Calder's work is set to open on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway by late 2024. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Calder's works were not highly sought after, and when they sold, it was often for relatively little money. A copy of a Pierre Matisse sales ledger in the foundation's files shows that only a few pieces in the 1941 show found buyers, one of whom, Solomon R. Guggenheim , paid only $ 233.34 (equivalent to $ 4,834 in 2023) for

545-656: A career as an artist. In New York City, Calder enrolled at the Art Students League , studying briefly with George Luks , Boardman Robinson , and John Sloan . While a student, he worked for the National Police Gazette where, in 1925, one of his assignments was sketching the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus . Calder became fascinated with the circus action, a theme that would reappear in his later work. In 1926, Calder moved to Paris, enrolled in

654-407: A choreography due to their rhythmic movement. In addition to sculptures, Calder painted throughout his career, beginning in the early 1920s. He picked up his study of printmaking in 1925, and continued to produce illustrations for books and journals. His projects from this period include pen-and-ink line drawings of animals for a 1931 publication of Aesop 's fables. As Calder's sculpture moved into

763-626: A dozen theatrical productions, including Nucléa , Horizon , and most notably, Martha Graham 's Panorama (1935), a production of the Erik Satie symphonic drama Socrate (1936), and later, Works in Progress (1968). Works in Progress was a "ballet" conceived by Calder himself and produced at the Rome Opera House , featuring an array of mobiles, stabiles, and large painted backdrops. Calder would describe some of his stage sets as dancers performing

872-459: A federal judge ruled that for Rio Nero the burden of proof had not been fulfilled. Despite the decision, the owners of the mobile could not sell it because the recognized expert, Klaus Perls , had declared it a copy. The judge recognized the problem at the time, noting that Perls' pronouncement would make Rio Nero unsellable. In 1994, the Calder Foundation declined to include the mobile in

981-423: A model of his work, the engineering department would scale it up under Calder's direction, and technicians would complete the actual metalwork — all under Calder's watchful eye. Stabiles were made in steel plate, then painted. An exception was Trois disques , in stainless steel at 24 metres (79 ft) tall, commissioned by International Nickel Company of Canada . In 1958, Calder asked Jean Prouvé to construct

1090-450: A pavilion was Belgium in 1907, followed by Germany, Britain and Hungary in 1909. The pavilions are the property of the individual countries and are managed by their ministries of culture. Countries not owning a pavilion in the Giardini are exhibited in other venues across Venice. The number of countries represented is still growing. In 2005, China was showing for the first time, followed by

1199-555: A petition calling for Israel to be excluded from the Venice Biennale due to Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip . The Biennale rejected the petition, saying it would "not take into consideration any petition or call to exclude" countries recognized by Italy. Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said that: "Israel not only has the right to express its art, but it has the duty to bear witness to its people precisely at

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1308-725: A preface for the catalogue of Calder's first exhibition of abstract constructions held at the Galerie Percier in 1931. Calder and Louisa returned to America in 1933 to a farmhouse they purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut , where they raised a family (Sandra born 1935, Mary born 1939). During World War II , Calder attempted to join the Marines as a camoufleur (see List of camoufleurs ), but was rejected. In 1955 he and Louisa traveled through India for three months, where Calder produced nine sculptures as well as some jewelry. In 1963, Calder settled into

1417-536: A restructuring, an associated financial boost, as well as a new president, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata . Three entirely new events were established, including the Biennale Musica in 1930, also referred to as International Festival of Contemporary Music ; the Venice Film Festival in 1932, which they claim as the first film festival in history, also referred to as Venice International Film Festival; and

1526-470: A retrospective of Courbet . A work by Picasso "Family of Saltimbanques" was removed from the Spanish salon in the central Palazzo because it was feared that its novelty might shock the public. By 1914 seven pavilions had been established: Belgium (1907), Hungary (1909), Germany (1909), Great Britain (1909), France (1912), and Russia (1914). During World War I , the 1916 and 1918 events were cancelled. In 1920

1635-537: A section of the exhibition designed to explore emerging art. Italian art historian Giovanni Carandente directed the 1988 and 1990 editions. A three-year gap was left afterwards to make sure that the 1995 edition would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Biennale. The 1993 edition was directed by Achille Bonito Oliva. In 1995, Jean Clair was appointed to be the Biennale's first non-Italian director of visual arts while Germano Celant served as director in 1997. For

1744-598: A shape or line if necessary. In the 1950s, Calder concentrated more on producing monumental sculptures (his agrandissements period), and public commissions increasingly came his way in the 1960s. Notable examples are .125 (1957) for JFK Airport in New York, Spirale (1958) for UNESCO in Paris, and Trois disques , commissioned for Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Calder's largest sculpture, at 25.7 metres (84 ft) high,

1853-434: A small group of works from around this period with a hanging base-plate, for example Lily of Force (1945), Baby Flat Top (1946), and Red is Dominant (1947). He also made works such as Seven Horizontal Discs (1946), which, like Lily of Force (1945) and Baby Flat Top (1946), he was able to dismantle and send by mail for his upcoming show at Galerie Louis Carré in Paris, despite the stringent size restrictions imposed by

1962-641: A time like this when it has been ruthlessly struck by merciless terrorists . The Venice Art Biennale will always be a space of freedom, encounter and dialogue and not a space of censorship and intolerance." On 13 February 2024, the Holy See Press Office announced that Pope Francis would attend the Venice Biennale. He visited the Pavilion of the Holy See in the Prison Giudecca on Sunday 28 April 2024. This

2071-551: A total price of $ 100,000. Two years later, Braniff asked Calder to design a flagship for their fleet celebrating the U.S. Bicentennial. That piece, a Boeing 727-291 jet N408BN called the Flying Colors of the United States , and nicknamed the 'Sneaky Snake' by its pilots (based on quirky flight tendencies), featured a rippled image of red, white and blue echoing a waving American flag. A third design, to be dubbed Salute to Mexico ,

2180-584: A view of works by three generations of Alexander Calders. From the second floor window on the east side of the Great Stair Hall (on the opposite side from the armor collection) there is behind the viewer Calder's own Ghost mobile, ahead on the street is the Swann Memorial Fountain by his father, A. Stirling Calder , and beyond that the statue of William Penn atop City Hall by Calder's grandfather, Alexander Milne Calder . Calder Gardens ,

2289-490: A work. The Museum of Modern Art had bought its first Calder in 1934 for $ 60, after talking Calder down from $ 100. And yet by 1948 Calder nearly sold out an entire solo show in Rio de Janeiro, becoming the first internationally renowned sculptor. Galerie Maeght in Paris became Calder's exclusive Parisian dealer in 1950 and for the rest of Calder's life. After his New York dealer Curt Valentin died unexpectedly in 1954, Calder selected

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2398-540: Is one of the best natured fellows there is." In the summer of 1916, Calder spent five weeks training at the Plattsburgh Civilian Military Training Camp . In 1918, he joined the Student's Army Training Corps, Naval Section, at Stevens and was made guide of the battalion. Calder received a degree from Stevens in 1919. He held a variety of jobs including hydraulic engineer and draughtsman for

2507-627: The Académie de la Grande Chaumière , and established a studio at 22 rue Daguerre in the Montparnasse Quarter . In June 1929, while traveling by boat from Paris to New York, Calder met his future wife, Louisa James (1905–1996), a daughter of Edward Holton James and grandniece of author Henry James and philosopher William James . They married in 1931. While in Paris, Calder befriended a number of avant-garde artists, including Joan Miró , Fernand Léger , Jean Arp , and Marcel Duchamp . Leger wrote

2616-468: The Lido . The Art Biennale (La Biennale d'Arte di Venezia) is one of the world's largest and most important contemporary visual art exhibitions. So-called because it is held biannually, it is the original biennale on which others in the world have been modeled. The exhibition space spans over 7,000 square meters, and artists from over 75 countries are represented in the collective exhibition spaces as well as in

2725-581: The New York Edison Company . In June 1922, Calder took a mechanic position on the passenger ship H. F. Alexander . While sailing from San Francisco to New York City, Calder slept on deck and awoke one early morning off the Guatemalan Coast and witnessed both the sun rising and the full moon setting on opposite horizons. He described in his autobiography, "It was early one morning on a calm sea, off Guatemala, when over my couch—a coil of rope—I saw

2834-459: The Perls Galleries in New York as his new American dealer, and this alliance lasted until Calder's death. In 2010, his metal mobile Untitled (Autumn Leaves) , sold at Sotheby's New York for $ 3.7 million. Another mobile brought $ 6.35 million at Christie's later that year. Also at Christie's, a standing mobile called Lily of Force (1945), which was expected to sell for $ 8 to $ 12 million,

2943-566: The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, where he observed a four-horse-chariot race. This style of event later became the finale of Calder's miniature circus performances. In late 1909 the family returned to Philadelphia, where Calder briefly attended Germantown Academy , then they moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York . That Christmas, he sculpted a dog and a duck out of sheet brass as gifts for his parents. The sculptures are three-dimensional and

3052-538: The catalogue raisonné on the artist. Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( / ˌ b iː ɛ ˈ n ɑː l eɪ , - l i / ; Italian : La Biennale di Venezia ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice , Italy, by the Biennale Foundation . It focuses on contemporary art , and includes events for art, contemporary dance, architecture, cinema, and theatre. Two main components of

3161-543: The "New Gallery, Charles Hayden Memorial Library". By 1970, the Hayden Gallery was exhibiting several contemporary art shows annually, such as the groundbreaking Exploration show, organized by the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies under the direction of György Kepes . This popular exhibition included interactive and kinetic light-based artworks by Wen-Ying Tsai , William H Wainwright and Kepes, and Takis . In 1985,

3270-478: The 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification . The event was directed by Vittorio Sgarbi . The Giardini houses 30 permanent national pavilions. Alongside the Central Pavilion, built in 1894 and later restructured and extended several times, the Giardini are occupied by a further 29 permanent pavilions built at different periods by the various countries participating in the Biennale. The first nation to build

3379-504: The Aperto began as a fringe event for younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by the permanent national pavilions. This is usually staged in the Arsenale and has become part of the formal biennale programme. In 1995 there was no Aperto so a number of participating countries hired venues to show exhibitions of emerging artists. From 1999, both the international exhibition and

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3488-486: The Aperto were held as one exhibition, held both at the Central Pavilion and the Arsenale. Also in 1999, a $ 1 million renovation transformed the Arsenale area into a cluster of renovated shipyards, sheds and warehouses, more than doubling the Arsenale's exhibition space of previous years. A special edition of the 54th Biennale was held at Padiglione Italia of Torino Esposizioni – Sala Nervi (December 2011 – February 2012) for

3597-558: The Arsenale with "Always a Little Further." Drawing on "the myth of the romantic traveler" her exhibition involved 49 artists, ranging from the elegant to the profane. In 2007, Robert Storr became the first director from the United States to curate the Biennale (the 52nd), with a show entitled Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense . Swedish curator Daniel Birnbaum

3706-618: The Arsenale. In 1999 a new sector was created for live shows: DMT (Dance Music Theatre). The 50th edition, 2003, directed by Francesco Bonami , had a record number of seven co-curators involved, including Hans Ulrich Obrist , Catherine David , Igor Zabel , Hou Hanru and Massimiliano Gioni . The 51st edition of the Biennale opened in June 2005, curated, for the first time by two women, Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez . De Corral organized "The Experience of Art" which included 41 artists, from past masters to younger figures. Rosa Martinez took over

3815-536: The Art Biennale, the exhibition is based one main exhibition in the arsenale halls, as well as national exhibitions hosted in the pavilions of the arsenale and Biennale gardens. When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, one of its main goals was to establish a new market for contemporary art. Between 1942 and 1968 a sales office assisted artists in finding clients and selling their work, a service for which it charged 10% commission. Sales remained an intrinsic part of

3924-615: The Art Exhibition in 1948. The Art Biennale was resumed in 1948 with a major exhibition of a recapitulatory nature. The Secretary General, art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini, started with the Impressionists and many protagonists of contemporary art including Chagall , Klee , Braque , Delvaux , Ensor , and Magritte , as well as a retrospective of Picasso 's work. Peggy Guggenheim was invited to exhibit her collection, later to be permanently housed at Ca' Venier dei Leoni . 1949 saw

4033-503: The Art Exhibition with Jean Fautrier , Hans Hartung , Emilio Vedova , and Pietro Consagra . The 1964 Art Exhibition introduced continental Europe to Pop Art ( The Independent Group had been founded in Britain in 1952). The American Robert Rauschenberg was the first American artist to win the Gran Premio, and the youngest to date. The student protests of 1968 also marked a crisis for

4142-602: The Arts . In 1971, Calder created his Bent Propeller which was installed at the entrance of the World Trade Center 's North Tower in New York City. When Battery Park City opened, the sculpture was moved to Vesey and Church Streets. The sculpture stood in front of 7 World Trade Center until it was destroyed on September 11, 2001 . In 1973, the 63-foot tall (19 m) vermillion-colored public art sculpture Four Arches

4251-538: The Biennale Theatro in 1934, also referred to as International Theatre Festival . In 1933 the Biennale organized an exhibition of Italian art abroad. From 1938, Grand Prizes were awarded in the art exhibition section. During World War II , the activities of the Biennale were interrupted: 1942 saw the last edition of the events. The Film Festival restarted in 1946, the Music and Theatre festivals were resumed in 1947, and

4360-520: The Biennale's exhibition spaces. In 1954 the island San Giorgio Maggiore provided the venue for the first Japanese Noh theatre shows in Europe. 1956 saw the selection of films following an artistic selection and no longer based upon the designation of the participating country. The 1957 Golden Lion went to Satyajit Ray's Aparajito which introduced Indian cinema to the West. 1962 included Arte Informale at

4469-556: The Biennale. Student protests hindered the opening of the Biennale. A resulting period of institutional changes opened and ending with a new Statute in 1973. In 1969, following the protests, the Grand Prizes were abandoned. These resumed in 1980 for the Mostra del Cinema and in 1986 for the Art Exhibition. In 1972, for the first time, a theme was adopted by the Biennale, called "Opera o comportamento" ("Work or Behaviour"). Starting from 1973

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4578-551: The Calder Foundation is now focusing on organizing global exhibitions for the artist. One of Calder's grandsons, Alexander S. C. "Sandy" Rower, is the president of the foundation and other family members are on the board of trustees. The Calder Foundation does not authenticate artworks; rather, owners can submit their works for registration in the Foundation's archive and for examination. The committee that performs examinations includes experts, scholars, museum curators, and members of

4687-575: The Calder family. The Calder Foundation's website provides details on the current policies and guidelines governing examination procedures. In 1993, the owners of Rio Nero (1959), a sheet-metal and steel-wire mobile ostensibly by Calder, went to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia charging that it was not by Alexander Calder, as claimed by its seller. That same year,

4796-701: The Calders moved to Spuyten Duyvil to be closer to New York City, where Stirling Calder rented a studio. While living in Spuyten Duyvil, Calder attended high school in nearby Yonkers . In 1912, Calder's father was appointed acting chief of the Department of Sculpture of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, and began work on sculptures for the exposition that

4905-494: The Centenary in 1995, the Biennale promoted events in every sector of its activity: the 34th Festival del Teatro, the 46th art exhibition, the 46th Festival di Musica, the 52nd Mostra del Cinema. The 48th and 49th editions, in 1999 and 2001, were directed by Harald Szeemann . These editions had a larger representation of artists from Asia and Eastern Europe and young artists and expanded the show into several newly restored spaces of

5014-682: The Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France (1969), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974). In addition, both of Calder's dealers, Galerie Maeght in Paris and the Perls Galleries in New York, averaged about one Calder show each per year. Calder's work is in many permanent collections across the world. The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder. Other museum collections include

5123-463: The Giardini. This included a Creative Time Summit, e-flux journal ' s SUPERCOMMUNITY , Gulf Labor Coalition, The Invisible Borders Trans-African Project and Abounaddara. The 2017 Biennale, titled Viva Arte Viva , was directed by French curator Christine Macel who called it an "exhibition inspired by humanism". German artist Franz Erhard Walther won the Golden Lion for best artist in

5232-1113: The LVAC, allocates funds for the commission of artworks in connection with each new campus construction or major renovation project. Past commissions include Louise Nevelson 's Transparent Horizon in front of the Landau Building, Sol LeWitt 's polychrome floor in the Green Center for Physics, and Anish Kapoor 's Non-Object (Plane) in the Stata Center . The LVAC maintains a permanent collection, primarily sited throughout campus, of over 3,000 prints, photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptures, textiles, collages, and other objects of contemporary art. The public sculpture collection includes over 50 major works by such artists as Alexander Calder , Jorge Pardo , Henry Moore , Pablo Picasso , Louise Nevelson , Sarah Sze , Dan Graham , Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy , Cai Guo-Qiang , Jaume Plensa , Frank Stella , and Mark DiSuvero . The public art has been called "one of

5341-519: The Museum of Modern Art, and was one of three Americans to be included in Alfred H. Barr Jr. 's 1936 exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art . Calder's first retrospective was held in 1938 at George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts . In 1943, the Museum of Modern Art hosted a Calder retrospective, curated by James Johnson Sweeney and Marcel Duchamp ; the show had to be extended due to

5450-630: The Music Festival was no longer held annually. During the year in which the Mostra del Cinema was not held, there was a series of "Giornate del cinema italiano" (Days of Italian Cinema) promoted by sectorial bodies in campo Santa Margherita, in Venice. 1973 saw the start of the five-year presidency of Carlo Ripa di Meana . The International Art Exhibition was not held (until it was resumed in 1976). Theatre and cinema events were held in October 1974 and 1975 under

5559-815: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía , Madrid; the Seattle Art Museum ; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. There are two pieces on display in the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY. The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers

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5668-408: The Spanish pavilion included Calder's sculpture Mercury Fountain . During World War II , Calder continued to sculpt, adapting to a scarcity of aluminum during the war by returning to carved wood in a new open form of sculpture called "constellations". Postwar, Calder began to cut shapes from sheet metal into evocative forms and hand-paint them in his characteristically bold hues. Calder created

5777-558: The US Pavilion: 42°21′39″N 71°05′16″W  /  42.3608°N 71.0877°W  / 42.3608; -71.0877 Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder ( / ˈ k ɔː l d ər / ; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his monumental public sculptures. Calder preferred not to analyze his work, saying, "Theories may be all very well for

5886-414: The Venice Biennale coincides with nearby Art Basel , the world's prime commercial fair for modern and contemporary art. Numerous galleries with artists on show in Venice usually bring work by the same artists to Basel. The formal Biennale is based at a park, the Giardini . The Giardini includes a large exhibition hall that houses a themed exhibition curated by the Biennale's director. Initiated in 1980,

5995-404: The World was lent by the American Folk Art Museum and exhibited in the first room of the Arsenale for the duration of the biennale. For Gioni, Auriti's work, "meant to house all worldly knowledge, bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race, from the wheel to the satellite," provided an analogous figure for the "biennale model itself...based on the impossible desire to concentrate

6104-400: The advice of the MIT Council for the Arts, and usually consist of artist's limited edition prints or photographs. In addition, the LVAC administers a Campus Loan Art Program, which loans framed and sculptural artwork from its permanent collection for display in administration, faculty, and staff offices. The LVAC has been the commissioning institution for the Venice Biennales three times at

6213-410: The age of eight for his sister's dolls using copper wire that he found in the street. For his lifelong friend Joan Miró , Calder set a shard of a broken porcelain vessel in a brass ring. Peggy Guggenheim received enormous silver mobile earrings and later commissioned a hammered silver headboard that shimmered with dangling fish. In 1942, Guggenheim wore one Calder earring and one by Yves Tanguy to

6322-517: The art and archives of Alexander Calder and [is] charged with an unmatched collection of his works". The foundation has large holdings, with some works owned by family members and others by foundation supporters. The art includes more than 600 sculptures including mobiles, stabiles, standing mobiles, and wire sculptures, and 22 monumental outdoor works, as well as thousands of oil paintings, works on paper, toys, pieces of jewelry, and domestic objects. After having worked mainly on cataloging Calder's works,

6431-404: The artist himself, but they shouldn't be broadcast to other people." Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania . His birthdate remains a source of confusion. According to Calder's mother, Nanette (née Lederer), Calder was born on August 22, yet his birth certificate at Philadelphia City Hall, based on a hand-written ledger, stated July 22. When Calder's family learned of

6540-442: The artist was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the United States' highest civilian honor, by President Gerald Ford . However, representatives of the Calder family boycotted the January 10, 1977, ceremony "to make a statement favoring amnesty for Vietnam War draft resisters ". In 1987, the Calder Foundation was established by Calder's family, "dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and interpreting

6649-611: The artist's wire sculpture. The painter Jules Pascin , a friend from the cafes of Montparnasse , wrote the preface to the catalog. A visit to Piet Mondrian 's studio in 1930, where he was impressed by the environment-as-installation, "shocked" him into fully embracing abstract art , toward which he had already been tending. It was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrian that led to his first truly kinetic sculptures, actuated by motors, that would become his signature artworks. Calder's kinetic sculptures are regarded as being among

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6758-457: The beginning of a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the other." The H.F. Alexander docked in San Francisco and Calder traveled to Aberdeen, Washington , where his sister and her husband, Kenneth Hayes resided. Calder took a job as a timekeeper at a logging camp. The mountain scenery inspired him to write home to request paints and brushes. Shortly after this, Calder decided to move back to New York to pursue

6867-419: The beginning of renewed attention to avant-garde movements in European—and later worldwide—movements in contemporary art. Abstract expressionism was introduced in the 1950s, and the Biennale is credited with importing Pop Art into the canon of art history by awarding the top prize to Robert Rauschenberg in 1964. From 1948 to 1972, Italian architect Carlo Scarpa did a series of remarkable interventions in

6976-541: The best collections of its kind" in a guide to American sculpture parks and gardens. An interactive map of all publicly situated art is available, as well as downloadable audio commentaries and printable brochures covering selected artworks. Detailed architectural coverage of major MIT buildings is also available. The LVAC administers the Student Lending Art Program, consisting of over 700 original works of art in 2-dimensional framed media. Through this popular annual loan program, students may borrow original works of art from

7085-452: The biennale until 1968, when a sales ban was enacted. An important practical reason why the focus on non-commodities has failed to decouple Venice from the market is that the biennale itself lacks the funds to produce, ship and install these large-scale works. Therefore, the financial involvement of dealers is widely regarded as indispensable; as they regularly front the funding for production of ambitious projects. Furthermore, every other year

7194-514: The birth certificate, they asserted with certainty that city officials had made a mistake. His mother was Jewish and of German descent and his father was Calvinist and of Scottish descent, but Calder never practiced a religion and rejected nationalism. Calder's grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder , was born in Scotland, had immigrated to Philadelphia in 1868, and is best known for the colossal statue of William Penn on Philadelphia City Hall 's tower. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder ,

7303-655: The central pavilion, while Carolee Schneemann was awarded a posthumous Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The 2019 Biennale, titled May You Live In Interesting Times , was directed by American-born curator Ralph Rugoff . The 2022 edition, curated by Italian curator Cecilia Alemani , was entitled "The Milk of Dreams" after a book by British-born Mexican surrealist painter Leonora Carrington . The Biennale has an attendance to date of over 500,000 visitors. In February 2024, thousands of artists and cultural workers, including Jesse Darling , Joanna Piotrowska , Nan Goldin , Michael Rakowitz and Leila Sansour , signed

7412-464: The children in the care of family friends for a year. The children were reunited with their parents in March 1906 and stayed at the Arizona ranch during that summer. The Calder family moved from Arizona to Pasadena, California . The windowed cellar of the family home became Calder's first studio and he received his first set of tools. He used scraps of copper wire to make jewelry for his sister's dolls. On January 1, 1907, Nanette Calder took her son to

7521-411: The circus was presented on both sides of the Atlantic. Soon, his Cirque Calder (on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art at present) became popular with the Parisian avant-garde. He also invented wire sculpture , or "drawing in space", and in 1929 had his first solo show of these sculptures in Paris at Galerie Billiet. Hi! , in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art , is an early example of

7630-557: The class of 1915. Alexander Calder's parents did not want him to be an artist, so he decided to study mechanical engineering. An intuitive engineer since childhood, Calder did not even know what mechanical engineering was. "I was not very sure what this term meant, but I thought I'd better adopt it," he later wrote. He enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey , in 1915. When asked why he decided to study mechanical engineering instead of art Calder said, "I wanted to be an engineer because some guy I rather liked

7739-438: The collection for their private rooms or communal spaces. Since 1977, the artworks available for loan are exhibited in a comprehensive September show, which may also be viewed by the general public. Each year, approximately 15 new works are added to the collection and displayed in the Student Center for a year, and high-value selected older works are reassigned to the non-circulating permanent collection. New selections are made with

7848-423: The duck is kinetic because it rocks when gently tapped. In Croton, during his high school years, Calder was befriended by his father's painter friend Everett Shinn with whom he built a gravity-powered system of mechanical trains. Calder described it, "We ran the train on wooden rails held by spikes; a chunk of iron racing down the incline speeded the cars. We even lit up some cars with candle lights". After Croton,

7957-420: The earliest manifestations of an art that consciously departed from the traditional notion of the art work as a static object and integrated the ideas of gesture and immateriality as aesthetic factors. Dating from 1931, Calder's abstract sculptures of discrete movable parts powered by motors were christened "mobiles" by Marcel Duchamp , a French pun meaning both "motion" and "motive". However, Calder found that

8066-675: The festival are known as the Art Biennale ( La Biennale d'Arte di Venezia ) and the Architecture Biennale ( La Biennale d'Architettura di Venezia ), which are held in alternating years. The others – Biennale Musica , Biennale Teatro, Venice Film Festival , and Venice Dance Biennale – are held annually. The main exhibition held in Castello alternates between art and architecture (hence the name biennale ), and there are around 30 permanent pavilions built by different countries. The Biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it

8175-429: The first step in the production of a monumental sculpture, was considered by Calder a sculpture in its own right. Larger works used the classic enlargement techniques of traditional sculptors, including his father and grandfather. Drawing his designs on craft paper, he enlarged them using a grid. His large-scale works were created according to his exact specifications, while also allowing him the liberty to adjust or correct

8284-525: The general public. Admission is free to all, as are most events sponsored by the LVAC, including family-friendly hands-on art workshops. The LVAC is housed in the Wiesner Building , an I.M. Pei -designed, fully accessible facility that incorporates the work of painter Kenneth Noland , sculptor Scott Burton , and environmental sculptor Richard Fleischner , all commissioned through MIT's Percent-for-Art program. The Percent-for-Art program, administered by

8393-537: The help of his son-in-law, Jean Davidson. Calder died unexpectedly in November 1976 of a heart attack , shortly after the opening of a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York. In Paris in 1926, Calder began to create his Cirque Calder , a miniature circus fashioned from wire, cloth, string, rubber, cork, and other found objects. Designed to be transportable (it grew to fill five large suitcases),

8502-405: The infinite worlds of contemporary art in a single place: a task that now seems as dizzyingly absurd as Auriti's dream." Curator Okwui Enwezor was responsible for the 2015 edition. He was the first African-born curator of the biennial. As a catalyst for imagining different ways of imagining multiple desires and futures Enwezor commissioned special projects and programs throughout the Biennale in

8611-731: The mobile also marked an abandonment of Modernism's larger goal of a rapprochement with science and engineering, and with unfortunate long-term implications for contemporary art. In 1934, Calder made his first outdoor works in his Roxbury, Connecticut studio, using the same techniques and materials as his smaller works. Exhibited outside, Calder's initial standing mobiles moved elegantly in the breeze, bobbing and swirling in natural, spontaneous rhythms. The first few outdoor works were too delicate for strong winds, which forced Calder to rethink his fabrication process. By 1936 he changed his working methods and began to create smaller-scale maquettes that he then enlarged to monumental size. The small maquette,

8720-423: The motorized works sometimes became monotonous in their prescribed movements. His solution, arrived at by 1932, was hanging sculptures that derived their motion from touch or air currents. The earliest of these were made of wire, found objects, and wood, a material that Calder used since the 1920s. The hanging mobiles were followed in 1934 by outdoor standing mobiles in industrial materials, which were set in motion by

8829-549: The museum was relocated to its current expanded facilities in the new Wiesner Building (E15) housing the MIT Media Lab , designed by I. M. Pei . The relocated museum was renamed the List Visual Arts Center in recognition of a gift by Vera and Albert List . The LVAC is internationally recognized for the 6 to 9 temporary exhibitions it presents each year in its 6,000-square-foot (560 m) galleries, which are open to

8938-533: The national pavilions. Until 2019, the Art Biennale used to take place in odd years and the Architecture Biennale in even years, but after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement, the Art Biennale now takes place in even years (2022, 2024) and the Architecture Biennale in odd years (2021, 2023). The Architecture Biennale (La Biennale d'Architettura di Venezia) is held in odd-numbered years. Similarly to

9047-479: The number of visitors. Calder was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. His mobile, International Mobile was the centerpiece of the exhibition. Calder also participated in documentas I (1955), II (1959), III (1964). Major retrospectives of his work were held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1964),

9156-479: The oldest of its kind. Since 2021, the Art Biennale has taken place in even years and the Architecture Biennale in odd years. On 19 April 1893, the Venetian City Council passed a resolution to set up an biennial exhibition of Italian Art ("Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale") to celebrate the silver anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy . A year later, the council decreed "to adopt

9265-455: The open air. The wind mobiles featured abstract shapes delicately balanced on pivoting rods that moved with the slightest current of air, allowing for a natural shifting play of forms and spatial relationships. Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Jean Arp in 1932 to differentiate them from mobiles. At Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937),

9374-459: The opening of her New York gallery, The Art of This Century , to demonstrate her equal loyalty to Surrealist and abstract art, examples of which she displayed in separate galleries. Others who were presented with Calder's pieces were the artist's close friend, Georgia O'Keeffe ; Teeny Duchamp , wife of Marcel Duchamp ; Jeanne Rucar, wife of the filmmaker Luis Buñuel ; and Bella Rosenfeld , wife of Marc Chagall . Calder's first solo exhibition

9483-536: The post of mayor of Venice and president of the Biennale was split. The new secretary general, Vittorio Pica brought about the first presence of avant-garde art, notably Impressionists and Post-Impressionists . 1922 saw an exhibition of sculpture by African artists . Between the two World Wars, many important modern artists had their work exhibited there. In 1928 the Istituto Storico d'Arte Contemporanea (Historical Institute of Contemporary Art) opened, which

9592-435: The postal service at the time. His 1946 show at Carré, which was organized by Duchamp, was composed mainly of hanging and standing mobiles, and it made a huge impact, as did the essay for the catalogue by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre . In 1951, Calder devised a new kind of sculpture, related structurally to his constellations. These "towers", affixed to the wall with a nail, consist of wire struts and beams that jut from

9701-703: The realm of pure abstraction in the early 1930s, so did his prints. The thin lines used to define figures in the earlier prints and drawings began delineating groups of geometric shapes, often in motion. Calder also used prints for advocacy, as in poster prints from 1967 and 1969 protesting the Vietnam War . As Calder's professional reputation expanded in the late 1940s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Masses of lithographs based on his gouache paintings were marketed, and deluxe editions of plays, poems, and short stories illustrated with fine art prints by Calder became available. One of Calder's more unusual undertakings

9810-670: The steel base of Spirale in France, a monumental mobile for the UNESCO site in Paris, while the top was fabricated in Connecticut. In June 1969, Calder attended the dedication of his monumental "stabile" sculpture La Grande Vitesse in Grand Rapids, Michigan . This sculpture is notable for being the first civic sculpture in the United States to receive funding from the National Endowment for

9919-557: The title Libertà per il Cile (Freedom for Chile)—a major cultural protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet . On 15 November 1977, the so-called Dissident Biennale (in reference to the dissident movement in the USSR) opened. Because of the ensuing controversies within the Italian left wing parties, president Ripa di Meana resigned at the end of the year. In 1978 the new presidency of Giuseppe Galasso (1978-1983) began. The principle

10028-635: The unveiling of the sculptures. Originally meant to be constructed in 1977 for the Hart Senate Office Building, Mountains and Clouds was not built until 1985 due to government budget cuts. The massive sheet-metal project, weighing 35 tons, spans the nine-story height of the building's atrium in Washington, D.C. Calder designed the maquette for the United States Senate in the last year of his life. Calder created stage sets for more than

10137-533: The wall, with moving objects suspended from their armatures. While not denying Calder's power as a sculptor, an alternate view of the history of twentieth-century art cites Calder's turning away in the early 1930s from his motor-powered works in favor of the wind-driven mobile as marking a decisive moment in Modernism's abandonment of its earlier commitment to the machine as a critical and potentially expressive new element in human affairs. According to this viewpoint,

10246-743: Was El Sol Rojo , constructed outside the Estadio Azteca for the 1968 Summer Olympics "Cultural Olympiad" events in Mexico City . Many of his public art works were commissioned by renowned architects; for example, I.M. Pei commissioned La Grande Voile , a 25-ton, 40-foot high (12 m) stabile sculpture for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966. Most of Calder's monumental stationary and mobile sculptures were made after 1962 at Etablissements Biémont in Tours , France. He would create

10355-403: Was a commission from Dallas-based Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size Douglas DC-8 -62 four-engined jet as a "flying canvas". George Stanley Gordon , founder of the New York City advertising agency Gordon and Shortt, approached Calder with the idea of painting a jet in 1972, but Calder responded that he did not paint toys. When Gordon told him it was a real, full-sized airliner he

10464-482: Was a mechanical engineer, that's all". At Stevens, Calder was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and excelled in mathematics. He was well-liked and the class yearbook contained the following description, "Sandy is evidently always happy, or perhaps up to some joke, for his face is always wrapped up in that same mischievous, juvenile grin. This is certainly the index to the man's character in this case, for he

10573-747: Was a well-known sculptor who created many public installations, a majority of them in Philadelphia. Calder's mother was a professional portrait artist , who had studied at the Académie Julian and the Sorbonne in Paris from around 1888 until 1893. She moved to Philadelphia, where she met Stirling Calder while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . Calder's parents married on February 22, 1895. Alexander Calder's sister, Margaret Calder Hayes,

10682-545: Was artistic director of the 2009 edition entitled "Fare Mondi // Making Worlds". The 2011 edition was curated by Swiss curator Bice Curiger entitled "ILLUMInazioni – ILLUMInations". The Biennale in 2013 was curated by the Italian Massimiliano Gioni . His title and theme, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico / The Encyclopedic Palace , was adopted from an architectural model by the self-taught Italian-American artist Marino Auriti . Auriti's work, The Encyclopedic Palace of

10791-474: Was bought for $ 18.5 million in 2012. Calder's 7.5-foot-long hanging mobile Poisson volant (Flying Fish) (1957) fetched $ 25.9 million, setting an auction record for the sculptor at Christie's New York in 2014. Beginning in 1966, winners of the National Magazine Awards are awarded an "Ellie", a copper-colored stabile resembling an elephant, which was designed by Calder. Two months after his death,

10900-714: Was commissioned but went uncompleted following his death. In 1975 Calder was commissioned to paint a BMW 3.0 CSL automobile, which would be the first vehicle in the BMW Art Car Project. Calder created over 2,000 pieces of jewelry over the course of his career, many as gifts for friends. Several pieces reflect his fascination with art from Africa and other continents. They were mostly made of brass and steel, with bits of ceramic, wood and glass. Calder rarely used solder; when he needed to join strips of metal, he linked them with loops, bound them with snippets of wire or fashioned rivets. Calder created his first pieces in 1906 at

11009-483: Was held in 1915. During Calder's high school years (1912–1915), the family moved back and forth between New York and California. In each new location, Calder's parents reserved cellar space as a studio for their son. Near the end of this period, Calder stayed with friends in California while his parents moved back to New York, so that he could graduate from Lowell High School in San Francisco .   Calder graduated with

11118-632: Was in 1927 at the Gallery of Jacques Seligmann in Paris. His first solo show in a US commercial gallery was in 1928 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York City. He exhibited with the Abstraction-Création group in Paris in 1933. In 1935, he had his first solo museum exhibition in the United States at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago . In New York, he was championed from the early 1930s by

11227-495: Was installed on Bunker Hill, Los Angeles to serve as "a distinctive landmark". The plaza site was designed in tiers to maximize the sculpture's visual effects. In 1974, Calder unveiled two sculptures, Flamingo at Federal Plaza and Universe at Sears Tower , in Chicago, Illinois, accompanied by the exhibition Alexander Calder: A Retrospective Exhibition, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago which opened simultaneously with

11336-573: Was instrumental in the development of the UC Berkeley Art Museum . Four-year-old Calder posed nude for his father's sculpture The Man Cub , a cast of which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 1902 he also completed his earliest sculpture, a clay elephant. In 1905 his father contracted tuberculosis , and Calder's parents moved to a ranch in Oracle, Arizona , leaving

11445-582: Was laid down whereby each of the artistic sectors was to have a permanent director to organise its activity. In 1980, the Architecture section of the Biennale was set up. The director, Paolo Portoghesi , opened the Corderie dell'Arsenale to the public for the first time. At the Mostra del Cinema, the awards were brought back into being (between 1969 and 1979, the editions were non-competitive). In 1980, Achille Bonito Oliva and Harald Szeemann introduced "Aperto",

11554-409: Was proposing, the artist immediately gave his approval. Gordon felt that Braniff, known for melding the worlds of fashion and design with the world of aviation, would be the perfect company to carry out the idea. Braniff Chairman Harding Lawrence was highly receptive and a contract was drawn up in 1973 calling for the painting of one Douglas DC-8-62 jet liner, dubbed Flying Colors , and 50 gouaches for

11663-411: Was seen by 224,000 visitors. The exhibition took place in the Giardini. The event became increasingly international in the first decades of the 20th century: from 1907 on, several countries installed national pavilions at the exhibition, with the first being from Belgium. In 1910 the first internationally well-known artists were displayed: a room dedicated to Gustav Klimt , a one-man show for Renoir ,

11772-426: Was the first nucleus of archival collections of the Biennale. In 1930 its name was changed into Historical Archive of Contemporary Art. In 1930, the Biennale was transformed into an Ente Autonomo (Autonomous Board) by Royal Decree with law no. 33 of 13 January 1930. Subsequently, the control of the Biennale passed from the Venice city council to the national Fascist government under Benito Mussolini . This brought on

11881-537: Was the first time a pope has visited the international exhibition. The main exhibition held in Castello, in the halls of the Arsenale and Biennale Gardens , alternates between art and architecture (hence the name biennale ; biennial ). The other events hosted by the Foundation—spanning theatre, music , and dance—are held annually in various parts of Venice, whereas the Venice Film Festival takes place at

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