New Article on Houzz: “A Top Mobile Designer Shows How to Create a Calder-Inspired Mobile”

I wrote a new article for Houzz: “From the Artist: How to Make a Real Mobile – It’s all in the balancing points: A top mobile designer shows how to create a Calder-inspired installation of your own“. It explains how to make a “real” mobile, meaning one in which the balance of the different parts depend on each other, which results in much more interesting dynamics than if you just tie a number of objects to a coat hanger or a horizontal circle.

None of the how-to articles that I’ve come across explain how the balance structure of a real mobile works in simple terms. This article provides you with a sort of blueprint for mobiles. Once you have that, you can apply it using any materials, whether those are just some random objects you find around your house, objects specific to a season or a holiday, or some mid-century modern shapes.

Read it, experiment and have fun!

– More of my blog about mobiles –

Calder at Art Basel Miami Beach – Mobiles Constitute a Trend

Today, December 4th 2014, at Art Basel Miami Beach, Leonardo DiCaprio also came to buy. As the dealer David Nahmad stood in front of an Alexander Calder mobile at Helly Nahmad Gallery, the heavily bearded actor approached him and asked, “I need your advice on a Picasso drawing,” and the two walked to a rival’s booth. The Calder mobile they stood in front of, pictured below, is Rouge Triomphant, ca. 1959–63, measuring 110 × 230 × 180 in / 279 x 584 x 457cm (“bigger than a taco truck” according to the Wall Street Journal), which sold for US$9.7m just two years ago at Christie’s and is now priced at US$35m. As of Friday, a collector has reportedly reserved it. [Update: the mobile was briefly listed again for sale on Artsy in December 2021]

Photo of Large Orginial Calder Mobile for Sale

Article “Upwardly Mobile” in The Art Newspaper: “Mobiles definitely constitute a trend at Art Basel Miami Beach, with organizers seeing an increase in the number of galleries installing hanging works … The number of mobiles is striking.”

Xin Li, deputy chairman of Christie’s Asia, with Rouge Triomphant at Art Basel Miami Beach, who was instrumental in selling Calder’s mobile Poisson volant (Flying Fish) (1957) for a record-breaking US$25m in May of this year (2014).

Also at Art Basel Miami Beach:

See Calder Foundation President Sandy Rower’s Top 5 Picks at Art Basel Miami Beach 2014

– See the mobiles for sale at Art Basel Miami Beach 2017 –
– Read more of my blog about mobiles –

Two Original Calder Mobiles Sold Tonight at Sotheby’s in Paris

Two original Alexander Calder mobiles, one hanging and one standing, sold tonight at Sotheby’s Art Contemporain in Paris:

Sans Titre (Untitled Hanging Mobile)
painted metal and wire
ca. 1947
86 x 71 cm / 34 x 28 in
Estimate: 1,000,000 – 1,500,000 USD
Sold for: 2,042,246 USD

Calder probably made this mobile in his Roxbury studio and gave it to a New York pediatrician as a thank you, after a somewhat comical request, to treat his mother in her old age.

Sans Titre (Untitled Standing Mobile)
sheet metal, brass wire and paint
ca. 1955
13 x 12 x 7.5 cm / 5 1/8 x 4 ¾ x 3 in
Estimate: 127,000 – 190,000 USD
Sold for: 260,753 USD

– Read more of my blog about mobiles –

Cyber Monday Sale on 3D Printed Mobiles

The 3D printing service company Shapeways that we use to make our 3D Printed Mobiles is having a Cyber Monday Sale today: 20% off when you enter promo code “CYBER20” (expires tonight December 1st 2014 at midnight PST). If you’ve been considering getting any of our 3D Printed Mobiles, now would be a good time: www.shapeways.com/shops/mobiles. You will also receive them before Christmas.

Photo of 3D Printing Art Sculptures for sale

Photos of a Large Custom Mobile for a Playroom

Photos of a large custom mobile I finished last week for a client’s children’s playroom (via Reddymade Design, NYC). It measures 6 ft / 1.8 m and is made with a hollow aluminum sphere (ball). The design is inspired by Alexander Calder‘s mobiles.