Yellow Stalk

Alexander Calder trained in mechanical engineering, graduating from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken in 1919. As the son and grandson of acclaimed sculptors, it is perhaps not surprising that his most identifiable creations fuse movement, energy, bright colors, and sculptural forms. In 1926, after initial training in painting at the Art Students League in New York City, Calder moved to Paris and met Joan Miró. Miró's and Klee's abstract, biomorphic forms and bright colors likely inspired him, and he began to create small wood and wire animals and other figures. It was after a visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930 that Calder began to create abstract constructions and kinetic mobiles, making his first air-driven mobile (as opposed to motorized power) in 1932. By the 1960s, demand for the artist's commissioned largescale mobiles and stabiles had increased and Calder devoted more of his time to overseeing their fabrication, though he also continued to create smaller-scale works throughout his life.

Yellow Stalk was a gift of the artist to art critic, dealer, and curator Katharine Kuh, who subsequently gave it to the AMAM. The museum also has in its collection Yellow Among Reds, one of Calder's large non-commissioned mobiles, two early paintings, and a number of the artist's drawings for the book Three Young Rats and Other Rhymes, published in 1944.