36 days - 7
Todays 7 was inspired by yet another modernist artwork from my favourite genre of modernist sculpture 'mobiles'. Alexander Calder is widely credited as being the inventor of the medium but I first became interested in them through Bruno Munari who featured earlier in my series. Today I delved a bit deeper into the history of mobiles to help educate my response. The sculpture is named in classical modernist, descriptive, fashion as it features 7 horizontal disks as a variety of more abstract shapes that hang purposefully and revolve around each other in perfect equilibrium and poise. This sense of reliance of forms and balance was essential within my 7. One of the main reasons I chose this sculpture was its immediate resemblance to the number in question. I wanted to mimic some of the joins and reliant angles in a way without overly ripping off the exact configurations of Calder discs.
"Who made the first mobile? Or, who invented mobiles? The short answer is that Alexander Calder is the originator of mobiles, which is mostly correct, but Calder wasn’t the first one nor the only one to experiment with the art form. The problem with providing a definite answer to the question of who made the first mobile starts with the definition of what a mobile is and what is simply just a hanging kinetic sculpture. You can read my definition of what a mobile is on my main page, but there isn’t really a set of rules that one can apply to clearly tell one from the other. However, following are the hanging kinetic sculptures that I’m aware of that were made before Calder started to make mobiles. Some of them clearly qualify as mobiles in my opinion, others are up for debate."
- exert from who invented mobiles a history of mobiles https://www.marcomahler.com/mobiles-before-calder-who-invented-mobiles-history/
"Alexander Calder's Seven Horizontal Discs, one of the most historically significant mobiles, having been featured in two of his most important lifetime exhibitions, the show held at Louis Carré's gallery in 1946 in the wake of the Second World War."
Heres a range of Calder sculptures followed by the inspiration in question :
I did a few quick sketches before being able to digitalise. At times using a metallic liner in a bid to create a sense of the raw materials and mediums that Calder would have galvanised when making his masterpieces.
I balanced the newly resized forms and added a sense of depth via some photoshop shading on the two red spheres. I adapted them from Calder's disks to make the composition my own. These 3D spheres juxtapose the 2D vectors of the stem and black disks nicely to create a visually confusing piece full of surreal depth. The slight radial gradient from light to dark also helps this and makes it look like the original in its show position at Christie's, with bright studio lights emphasising the delicate forms. I threw in an image of Calder holding another one of his mobiles as it hangs removed on photoshop and replaced by my interpretation.
Text:
"7 is for Seven Horizontal Discs - the 1946 piece by American sculptor Alexander Calder, famous for his kinetic, motorised mobiles. Widely credited as being the first of their kind, the style was later adopted by Munari and countless others. Big ups Alexander for posing for this one and continuing to inspire."
"Who made the first mobile? Or, who invented mobiles? The short answer is that Alexander Calder is the originator of mobiles, which is mostly correct, but Calder wasn’t the first one nor the only one to experiment with the art form. The problem with providing a definite answer to the question of who made the first mobile starts with the definition of what a mobile is and what is simply just a hanging kinetic sculpture. You can read my definition of what a mobile is on my main page, but there isn’t really a set of rules that one can apply to clearly tell one from the other. However, following are the hanging kinetic sculptures that I’m aware of that were made before Calder started to make mobiles. Some of them clearly qualify as mobiles in my opinion, others are up for debate."
- exert from who invented mobiles a history of mobiles https://www.marcomahler.com/mobiles-before-calder-who-invented-mobiles-history/
There is a 3D video of Calders Seven Horizontal discs on the Christies website https://www.christies.com/features/alexander-calder-lot-37-1821-3.aspx
Heres a range of Calder sculptures followed by the inspiration in question :
I did a few quick sketches before being able to digitalise. At times using a metallic liner in a bid to create a sense of the raw materials and mediums that Calder would have galvanised when making his masterpieces.
I started with a simplistic 2D interpretation with enlarged objects hanging in the balance. This was already a perfect layout that seemed physically possible to exist however perhaps the enlarged disks weren't true enough to the original. The emphasis on elegance and weightlessness were two of my favourite elements of the genre so I decided to push this a little further.
I balanced the newly resized forms and added a sense of depth via some photoshop shading on the two red spheres. I adapted them from Calder's disks to make the composition my own. These 3D spheres juxtapose the 2D vectors of the stem and black disks nicely to create a visually confusing piece full of surreal depth. The slight radial gradient from light to dark also helps this and makes it look like the original in its show position at Christie's, with bright studio lights emphasising the delicate forms. I threw in an image of Calder holding another one of his mobiles as it hangs removed on photoshop and replaced by my interpretation.
Text:
"7 is for Seven Horizontal Discs - the 1946 piece by American sculptor Alexander Calder, famous for his kinetic, motorised mobiles. Widely credited as being the first of their kind, the style was later adopted by Munari and countless others. Big ups Alexander for posing for this one and continuing to inspire."
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