Alexander Calder, the son and grandson of sculptor, was born in Philadelphia. He received a degree in engineering in 1919, but enrolled at the Art Students League in New York by 1923, where he was inspired by his teacher John Sloan to paint. In 1926, Calder began to study art in Paris and was greatly influenced by the works of Joan Miro and Paul Klee. In Paris, he created his famous work “Circus” (1926-32) which was made of wood and wire animals and performers with movable parts. In 1930, Calder visited the studio of Piet Mondrian and shortly after began to experiment with abstract constructions. Calder invented the wind-propelled mobiles that were characteristic of his work in the 1930s and 1940s and for which he is most famous. The term “mobile” was coined by Marcel Duchamp in reference to these abstract constructions made of kinetic sculpture which consisted of geometric elements and machine imagery. The painted constructions and the brightly colored mobiles combined Constructivist methods and materials with abstract form derived from Surrealist imagery. Calder also created what Jean Arp coined “stabiles”, which were huge-scale constructions in cut and painted metal sheets. These elegant metal sculptures were often associated with minimalism because of their simple form and technical construction. In his mature years, Calder created paintings, drawings, prints, both illustrations and tapestries.