ENTO FOR A FRIEND BY SHANI TOLEDANO
Born into an artistic family – his mother a painter and his father, Alexander Stirling Calder, a sculptor – Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was encouraged from an early age to create.
Although his initial studies were in mechanical engineering, after a short while in the industry Calder’s interest abruptly turned to painting and he enrolled himself at the Art Students
League in New York. His early training in realism did not hold his attention very long, however, and he left for Paris in 1926. There his circle of friends included artists Joan Miró, Fernand
Léger, Marcel Duchamp and James Johnson Sweeney, a curator, writer and devoted advocate of abstract Modern Art who went on to become curator for the Museum of Modern Art, as well as the Director of the Guggenheim Museum. After a visit to the studio of Piet Mondrian, Calder was inspired to pursue abstraction, a pivotal moment for his career.
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