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Calder was born in 1898 and he died in 1976. He lived to the age of 78.

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Alexander Calder was born in Pennsylvania in the USA.

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Many people consider Calder to be a genius, and one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.

But he wasn't a serious man. He once said "Above all, art should be fun!"

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Can you work out what year this painting was completed in?

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Calder made this painting in 1953. It is called Black Sun.

Why do you think it is called that?

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What does this painting make you think of?

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Calder's artwork is very famous. Some is displayed in Paris and some is displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City!

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Lots of Calder's paintings feature interesting shapes and forms.

Calder once said "I paint with shapes".

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Calder made this painting in 1969. It is called Sur les Pointes which is French for On the Tips. Why do you think it might be called On the Tips?

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Calder made mobiles which were delicately balanced shapes which hung from the ceiling. His mobiles had lots of interesting colours and unusual shapes.

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Some people say that Calder's art work looks a bit like stars or planets.

Calder once said "The first inspiration I ever had was the cosmos, the planetary system".

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Calder used the colours blue, red, yellow and black a lot in his artwork. 💙❤️💛🖤

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Calder's mobiles would bob and sway around in the breeze.

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When Alexander was a boy he used to collect scraps of metal to make jewellery for his sister's dolls.
He also made toys out of cloth, string and rubber.

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Many of Calder's paintings have strange and unusual shapes in them.

What do you think of when you see this painting?

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Calder used a technique called drawing with wire. He would bend wire into shapes to create the outlines of people or animals.

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Once Calder designed the colours for an aeroplane. It looked like this!

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Which animal do you think Calder is representing with this wire sculpture?