PublicationsCalder's Portraits

Celebrated for mobiles and stabiles that enliven city squares and museums around the world, Alexander Calder (1898–1976) is not widely recognized as a portrait artist. Throughout his career, however, Calder created portraits of a wide variety of subjects—himself and family members, entertainment figures (Josephine Baker and Jimmy Durante), sports stars (Babe Ruth and Helen Wills Moody), and artists (including Fernand Léger and Saul Steinberg). Calder’s Portraits examines how the artist negotiated his relationships the people he drew and painted, and how he continually defined and redefined himself through his art.