Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 24 Alexander Calder Questions: |
Ahab
Calder's huge mobile Ahab is an ASYMMETRICALLY balanced arrangement of gracefully bent black steel rods and abstract shapes. Because of its size, Calder had to make this mobile in two parts. The floating elements are very organic shapes that suggest the cosmos, the sea, or other aspects of the natural world. As these shapes move in space, they constantly redefine their relationships to one another. The thin steel rods that support the curving shapes and the gentle free-flowing movements of the mobile visually contradict its great size.
The ambiguous black shapes encourage viewers to interpret
the sculpture in many original ways. The mobile's title,
Ahab, recalls Melville's Captain Ahab in relentless pursuit
of the white whale, Moby Dick. With this reference in mind,
the BIOMORPHIC shapes
might be read as schools of fish, sea plants and creatures,
or even sails. Holes cut into some of the shapes evoke the
eyes of fish, and the rods arranged as though along a spine
may suggest a fishlike bone. Even the
mobile's movements, guided by shifts
in the air currents, can be compared to the motions of the
sea. Also like the ocean environment, the sculpture is in
constant motion, with the elements adapting and adjusting to
each other's movements.
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