Le Chien
1958
Alexander Calder
This dog is made out of planes cut from sheet metal that have been bolted together and then painted. The animal stands firmly with five legs on the ground and, due to the multiplicity of heads and paws, appears to be depicted not once, but several times. Alexander Calder’s sculpture invites you to circle around it, causing the dog to display varying postures and moods.
Details
- Plan number: B34
- Zone: Motion
- Title: Le Chien (The Dog)
- Creator: Alexander Calder
- Date: 1958
- Material: iron, paint
- Acquisition: purchase
- Object number: MID.B.383
Calder achieved world renown with his abstract mobiles: suspended, moving sculptures. This dog is one of his stationary “stabiles,” as fellow artist Hans Arp christened them. Calder began this series of stylized, figurative sculptures in 1940.
Calder was fascinated by motion. Visiting the planetarium in Paris, he became enchanted by the dynamics of the planets. This inspired him to explore movement in his work in very different ways.
American sculptor Alexander Calder was trained as a mechanical engineer. He had a penchant for industrial materials and techniques, which he combined with rounded, organic forms. Starting in the 1930s, he created his famous mobiles, some powered by a motor, others moving with the wind.
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