Ghost
Alexander Calder, American, 1898 - 1976
Geography:
Made in United States, North and Central America
Date:
1964Medium:
Metal rods, painted sheet metalDimensions:
Length: 34 feet (1036.3 cm) Weight: 225lb. (102.06 kg)Copyright:
© Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCuratorial Department:
American Art
1965-47-1Credit Line:
Purchased with the New Members Fund, 1965
Made in United States, North and Central America
Date:
1964Medium:
Metal rods, painted sheet metalDimensions:
Length: 34 feet (1036.3 cm) Weight: 225lb. (102.06 kg)Copyright:
© Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCuratorial Department:
American Art
* Great Stair Hall Balcony, second floor
Accession Number:1965-47-1Credit Line:
Purchased with the New Members Fund, 1965
Label:
Alexander Calder produced his first moving sculptures, which Marcel Duchamp dubbed “mobiles,” in the early 1930s. Using cutout shapes reminiscent of natural forms (birds, fish, falling leaves), Calder created floating three-dimensional worlds in constant flux. The large mobile Ghost installed in the Museum's Great Stair Hall was created to hang in the center of the Guggenheim Museum in New York for Calder’s exhibition there in 1964.
Alexander Calder produced his first moving sculptures, which Marcel Duchamp dubbed “mobiles,” in the early 1930s. Using cutout shapes reminiscent of natural forms (birds, fish, falling leaves), Calder created floating three-dimensional worlds in constant flux. The large mobile Ghost installed in the Museum's Great Stair Hall was created to hang in the center of the Guggenheim Museum in New York for Calder’s exhibition there in 1964.
Born in Philadelphia, Calder was third in a line of distinguished sculptors from this city. The Swann Fountain in Logan Circle was created in 1924 by his father, Alexander Stirling Calder (1870–1945). On top of City Hall is the thirty-six-foot-high statue of William Penn by Calder’s grandfather, Alexander Milne Calder (1846–1923), who also designed all the stone sculptural ornament for the City Hall building.
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