Calder with mobile in Paris, 1955 Photograph by Agnès Varda. Courtesy The Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, New York	"I used to begin with fairly complete drawings, but now I start by cutting out a lot of shapes.... Some I keep because they're pleasing or dynamic. Some are bits I just happen to find. Then I arrange them, like papier collé, on a table, and "paint" them -- that is, arrange them, with wires between the pieces if it's to be a mobile, for the overall pattern. Finally I cut some more of them with my shears, calculating for balance this time." - Alexander Calder on building a mobile, from Calder's Universe, 1976.
	In addition to motorized, mechanized sculpture, Calder began in the 1930s to experiment with work that produced spontaneous, random motion. Cône d'ébène (1933) -- an early suspended mobile -- is one such construction. Depending on the atmosphere surrounding the sculpture, its three suspended elements, hung by wire from metal bars, either lie at rest or rotate through the air. Calder took this concept one step further by building large-scale mobiles for the outdoors, allowing his works to operate at the hands of weather's fate. In August 1933, he relocated to an eighteenth-century farm in Roxbury, Connecticut, a move which seems to have had a direct correlation with the large-scale works he produced there. In 1934, Calder built several large mobiles "for the open air," which were intended to "react to the wind." Steel Fish (1934), for example, involves an intricate system of weights and balances, and depends on the strength of the wind to arrange or rearrange its composition. This particular work is an early example of the types of outdoor sculptures Calder would later build during the final years of his career. By the late 1930s, Calder had established himself and his work as a major force in twentieth-century art. As well as being the inventor of wire sculpture and the mobile, he was one of the first modern artists to create monumental work for public spaces. In a career that stretched to his death in 1976, Calder became one of the best-loved and widely appreciated American artists of all time.
		Cône d'ébène, 1933 ebony, wire, and metal bar 106 x 55 x 24 in. 269.2 x 139.7 x 61 cm Private Collection, New York © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York view enlargement
		Steel Fish, 1934 sheet metal, wire, rod, lead, and paint 115 x 137 x 120 in. 292.1 x 348 x 304.8 cm Private Collection © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York view enlargement
		Steel Fish, 1934, at Roxbury, Connecticut Photograph by Herbert Matter, ca. 1938 Courtesy The Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, New York
		Calder with mini-mobile in Saché, France, 1965. Courtesy The Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, New York
		Aluminum Leaves, Red Post, 1941 sheet metal, wire, and paint 61 x 61 in. 154.9 x 154.9 cm Collection of Jean Lipman © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York view enlargement
		S-Shaped Vine, 1946 sheet metal, wire, and paint 98 1/2 x 69 in. 250.2 x 175.3 cm Collection of Rita and Toby Schreiber © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York view enlargement
		Southern Cross, 1963 sheet metal, rod, bolts, and paint 243 x 324 x 211 in. 617.2 x 823 x 535.9 cm Private Collection, New York © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
		Teodelapio, 1962 Photograph taken in Spoleto, Italy, 1962 Courtesy The Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, New York view enlargement
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