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Brunette and Blonde
Alexander Calder
On view
Sculpture
American, 1898-1976
Brunette and Blonde
1943
painted wood and painted metal wire
1963.5
48 in wide
Alexander Calder is perhaps best known for his invention of the "mobile", or his hanging sculptures composed of multiple parts that move with the air. Calder recalled that it was fellow artist Marcel Duchamp who coined the term mobile, in 1931: “I asked [Duchamp] what sort of name I could give these things and he at once produced mobile. In addition to something that moves, in French it also means motive.” Though Calder preferred making his mobiles with metal, the components of Brunette and Blonde are carved painted wood. Made in 1943, the hanging sculpture reflects Calder’s material limitations in the midst of World War II, as the artist often turned to using wood at a time when metal was scarce.