Alexander Calder Art Quotations

My fingers always seem busier than my mind.

When an artist explains what he is doing, he usually has to do one of two things: either scrap what he has explained, or make his work fit in with the explanation.

The trouble with a lot of artists today is that they have too much technique and equipment. They don't know what to do with it all. If you cut down on it, you can work more strongly within narrower limits.

My whole theory about art is the disparity that exists between form, masses and movement.

Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion.

Above all, art should be fun.

To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there's no such thing as perfect.

To most people who look at a mobile, it's no more than a series of flat objects that move. To a few, though, it may be poetry.

Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions.