Ahab

Alexander Calder

1953

Painted metal

Minneapolis Institute of Art

From childhood Alexander Calder enjoyed inventing mechanical toys and gadgets. In Paris during the 1920s and 1930s he encountered a new type of sculpture, pioneered by Picasso and the Russian Constructivists: assemblages of wood, metal, plastic, and cardboard, with space incorporated as part of the design. Calder began building similar abstract pieces in 1930 but gave them a new dimension--motion. Fellow artist Marcel Duchamp christened the moving sculptures mobiles. One of Calder's largest mobiles, <I>Ahab</I> is composed of three arcs made of steel rods and irregularly shaped disks that suggest natural forms. The title refers to t