Mobile Art

A mobile is a form of kinetic sculpture designed to hang weighted objects or additional rods.

Artist Alexander Calder is credited with originating the mobile. By suspending forms that respond to the movement of air, Calder brought about a revolution in sculpture. Marcel Duchamp coined the term 'mobiles' for these works. Instead of being solid, massive objects, mobiles continually redefine the space around them as they move. Calder's skillful balance of form and colour led to works that evoke an animated interpretation of paintings by his friends, such as Joan Miró.

In 1943, Albert Einstein visited an exhibition of suspended artworks created by Alexander Calder at the Museum of Modern Art and became known for his famous remark: "I wish I had thought of that."

Other words in the glossary

Abject Art Abstract Art Abstract Expressionism Action Painting Activist Art Afrofuturism Airbrushing Algorithm
Analytical Cubism Anti-Art Antiquities Aquatint Art Brut Art Intervention Art Nouveau Arte Povera
Artificial Intelligence Artist Appropriation Artist's Proof Artist's Proof Artistic Tone (AT)Assemblage Auto-Destructive Art Automatism
Autonomous System Avant Garde Bauhaus Ben-Day Dots Biennial Biomorphic Biomorphism Black Arts Movement
Blockchain Body Art Caricature Certificate of Authenticity Charcoal Drawing Chicano Art Classicism COA
Collagraph Commission Composition in Art Conceptual Art Conceptualism Concrete Art Contemporary Art Contour Line
Contrapposto Craft Creolisation Cubism Curator Dada Decadence Décollage
Diaspora Digital Art Digital Print Diptych Documentary Photography Drypoint Edition Edition Number
Edition Size Embossed Engraving Ephemeral Art ERC-1155 ERC-721 Etching Expanded Cinema
Expressionism Fairy Painting Fauvism Feminist Art Film Positive Fin de Siecle Flâneur Fluid Dynamics
Fluxus Foreshortening Form in Art Formalism Found Object Fresco in Art Frottage Genre Painting
Geometric Abstraction Georgian Art German Expressionism Gestural Gouache Graffiti Art Graphic Design Graphite
Grattage Grupo Frente Gutai Hand-finishing Hard Edge Painting Hindu Art History Painting Hyperrealism
Iconography Immersive Art Impasto Impressionism Independent Group Insitutional Critique Installation Art Intaglio Printing
Interaction Art Intersectionality Kinetic Art Kitsch Land Art Landscape Art Les Nabis Linocut
Lithography Madonna and Child Magic Realism Mannerist Medium in Art Memento Mori Mesh Count Metaphysical Art
Mezzotint Minimalism Mixed Media Modern Art Mono Ha Monotype Montage Mosaic Art
Motif in Art Naive Art Narrative Art Naturalism Négritude Neo-Expressionism Neo-Plasticism Neo-Romanticism
NFT Non-Objective Art Nouveau Realism Offset Lithography Oil Painting Oil Pastel Old Masters Op Art
Open Edition Original artwork Outdoor Art Outsider Art Painterly Papier Collé Participatory Art Patina
Performance Art Performativity Photogram Photomontage Photopolymers Photorealism Photosensitive Emulsion Pictures Generation
Plane in Art Planographic Printing Plaster of Paris Plinth Pop Art Portraits Post Painterly Abstraction Post-Impressionism
Post-Internet Poster Art Pre-Columbian Art Printer's Proof (PP)Printmaking Process Art Proof Proportion
Provoke Era Psychedelic Art Psychogeography Rayograph Readymade Reference Work Registration Marks Relational Aesthetics
Relief printing Renaissance Reproduction Resin Rococo Romanticism Screen Fill Secession
Self-Portrait Serigraphy Silkscreen Simulacrum Site-Specific Art Situationist International Smart Contract Socially Engaged Practice
Soft Sculpture Sonic Art Sound Art Sound-on-Disc South African Art Squeegee Stencil Printing Street Art
Substrate Suprematism Surrealism Synthetic Cubism Synthetism Tableau Tempera Textile Arts
The Clique The Sublime Time-limited Edition Topographic Art Trompe-l'oeil Ukiyo-e Uncanny Underground Art
Vanishing Point Vanitas Verism Verso/Recto Vitrine Vorticism VR Artwork Web 3.0
Wood Engraving Woodcut YBA (Young British Artists)

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Parra's studio, with Parra at the centre, his back to the camera as he works on the large painting takes centre stage, showing a faceless blue woman in a striped dress, painted in red, purple, blue and teal. The studio is full of brightly coloured paints, with a large window on the right and a patterned rug across the floor under the painting.