Alexander Calder was an American artist known for his kinetic sculptures. In the 1930s, Calder began making his suspended mobiles–hanging structures that move with even the slightest touch of air–and stabiles–opposing sculptures with their bases rooted in the earth. Crag with White Flower and White Discs, 1974, merges the two mediums: a mountain-like stabile base, with white and red floral mobiles emerging from the top. Created in 1974, just a few years after the first moon landing, the piece also resembles the moon’s craters–a testament to Calder’s lifelong fascination with cosmology and astronomy, themes the artist drew on throughout his career. Though known primarily for his sculptural practice, Calder also worked with gouache, often painting images that showcased the earth and planets. With both mediums, Calder’s work always embodied a sense of movement. As his friend, the artist Marcel Duchamp once said, “The art of Calder is the sublimation of a tree in the wind” (Collection of the Société Anonyme, 1950).

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