Alexander Calder Philadelphia (1898) New York (1975)
Lobster Trap and Fish Tail .
1939
Steel wire and painted aluminum plate, width 289.5 cm
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) , New York
The delicate balance and the curvature of the metal forms creates an image of lobster trap, while the stylized and intensely colored fish, and the nine black elements suspended below give us the impression that we are looking at the skeleton of a fish. The metallic elements revolve jauntily, independent of each other, in slow circles, being set in motion by air currents. Calder combines humor marine images with the sense of beauty and elegance of a construction that continually raises, lowers and rotates at different speeds and in different directions. The movement element makes this work a prime example of kinetic art, a term that applies to work of art in which the real movement, or an impression of movement, plays an essential role. Lissitzky, Mir贸, Tinguely, Vasarely Calder invented the mobile; the first was been created in 1932. The height of their mobiles has ranged from about 4 cm and more than 5 meters; An example of this latter can be seen in the JF Kennedy airport in New York.