Art Pavilion: Exhibition of the Sculptor Alexander Calder

For the first time in this part of Europe, pieces of one of the most significant sculptors of the 20th century, Alexander Calder, will be displayed in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb from late September all the way to early January.

Within the series Greatest sculptors of the 20^th century, the exhibition Mage of sculptured movement of one of the most significant world sculptors Alexander Calder will be presented in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb from 27 September this year to 5 January 2020. This world renowned artist was born in 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, and died in 1976 in New York.

Calder’s oeuvre focuses on kinetic art, that is, on the form of artistic expression in which movement is the main component of the aesthetic of the art object. Some of the most renowned European museums lent the works of the world famous sculptor to the Art Pavilion to be displayed at the exhibition in Zagreb.

Calder came from a family of famous sculptors who gave them the first lessons in sculpting. He continued his education with private lessons in painting, and later studied art in New York. However, he later also enrolled in mechanical engineering course. This very combination of preferences marked his artistic expression. He first made sculptures in wood; then in 1927 he started making mobile toys and later his first wire sculptures which dominated the early period of his work came to life. In the early thirties he joined the Abstraction-Création Group in Paris and started working on mobile sculptures which are set in motion mechanically. Soon his static monumental abstract constructions, which he called stabiles, came to life. They are very important because they mark the breaking of the links between kineticism and works moved mechanically. 

The exhibition will focus on what is referred to as the mature Calderon phase, which brought him global recognition. In addition to his sculptures, it will comprehend around fifty paintings which are closely connected with the sculptures in his oeuvre. The exhibition in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb is the first in Croatia and in this part of Europe to present the oeuvre of this world renowned sculptor.

The series Greatest Sculptors of the 20^th century in the Art Pavilion in Zagreb started in 2014 with the Joan Miró exhibition, continued in 2015 with the retrospective exhibition of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin and then with the exhibition of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.