Tuesday Art ATTACK- Alexander Calder “Red Skeleton”

American sculptor Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania on July 22, 1898. He was born to a family of sculptors his grandfather, Alexander Milne Calder, was a well-known artist. Sandy's own father, Alexander Sterling Calder, created many beautiful public monuments across the United States including Swann Memorial Fountain in Philadelphia. As a child Sandy was very interested in sculpture. When Sandy was a young man he decided he wanted to be an Engineer and received a degree in Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. His early years as an Engineer would help shape his work. Unlike his Father and Grandfather, who were very traditional realistic sculptors, Calder was more influenced by his engineering. Calder's work was abstract and mostly metal based. He first began sculpting wire structures in the l920s. Calder received his arts education from the Art's Students League in New York and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. He created the Mobile structure and received acclaim for his bold abstract work. Calder would eventually create many important giant public monuments. The piece above was created in 1945. Calder passed away of a heart attack in New York in 1976.