Modernism ASSIGNMENT (Tines By Alexander Calder)

This weekend I visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and spent around 3 hours looking over the exhibits of countless pieces and their artists and by far my favorite was by Alexander Calder. The museum had a whole section dedicated to him with many beautiful and breath taking pieces that can have you looking at it and you would notice something different and unique every second and the one that spoke to me most was a piece by him called ‘Tines’.
Alexander Calder studied mechanical engineering and he applied that knowledge to his artwork. He is best known for hanging, mobile sculptures which were commonly held together with wire and had abstract shapes. Calder’s artistry came from dance and an exhibit he saw on early modernism. In addition, he also worked on stable structures and created paintings, designed textiles, and commissioned large-scale sculptures for public artworks throughout Europe and North America. He became one of the most notable artists and inventors of the 20th century with many commissioning his sculptures for centerpieces on their tables for events such as the ‘Candelabra’ in 1939, a sheet metal candle holder with the metal looping similarly to a rollercoaster with 10 candle holders placed throughout the structure, these unique sculpture can be found on display in the MOMA today.
As you can see, the one that got most of my attention was ‘Tines’ is one of Calder’s famous hanging pieces and depicts pitchfork tines, glass, shells, wire, and paint connected with string, moving freely in the room’s air currents. It is colorful and somewhat resembles a child’s crib mobile with soft, random movements and rotations. Tines was a sort of “Mobile ” like art that some classify as kinetic art and all that is to sum it up means any piece of art that contains some sort of movement that is perceivable by those that are looking at it or that depends on motion for its effect.”Tines” is just one of many of these “mobile ” like pieces and He tried to bring these colors and shapes alive in his art thats usually held by some strings and at the time his art was seen as unorthodox but in my opinion i think thats the reason because he bridges the gap between abstract and nature which in a way is associated with modernism. What drew me to this piece is its unique shape and built and i never really put much attention to art but looking at something different and that general idea of “sculptures” is a stagnant and motionless sculpture but with calder he intertwined the motion into art like no one else which became a first of its kind.

This entry was posted in assignments. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Modernism ASSIGNMENT (Tines By Alexander Calder)

  1. JSylvor says:

    I’m really glad that you selected a three dimensional work. This piece by Calder is a great example of Modernism. The very idea that art can be kinetic – that it can move – is a Modernist innovation, and we can only experience the art through its interaction with space/time.

Comments are closed.