Who Was Alexander Calder and Why Was He So Important?
In 1937 Calder returned to Paris, where he set up a studio in a garage outfitted with an automotive turntable, likely to facilitate the viewing and adjusting of his sculptures. That same year, he was commissioned to create Mercury Fountain for the Spanish Pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris. The work included mercury mined in Almadén, Spain, a material that symbolized Republican resistance during the Spanish Civil War. It was shown alongside Picasso’s Guernica and Miró’s The Reaper, reflecting the political engagement of these artists. Back in New York in 1938, Calder began construction of a large studio on the foundations of an old dairy barn in Roxbury and shortly afterward converted the adjoining icehouse studio into a living space known as the “Big Room.” That same year, his first retrospective, “Calder Mobiles,” was presented at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts. The show included 61 pieces of jewelry, and among the guests at the opening were designer Alvar Aalto and painter Fernand Léger. A year later, Calder was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art …
