Alexander Calder's Meal Mobiles

What you need to know about Alexander Calder’s sumptuous limited-edition plates with Bernardaud.

1. One of the greatest American artists of the 20th century, Alexander Calder is most famous for his invention of the balletic, nature-inspired hanging sculptures of wire and metal that his fellow artist Marcel Duchamp dubbed “mobiles.” 

2. In 2014, the Calder Foundation collaborated with the storied French porcelain maker Bernardaud to celebrate six of the artist’s most important mobiles from the 1940s and ‘50s by reproducing them in a limited-edition series of exquisite plates.

3. These instantly recognizable pieces are in line with Calder’s pursuit of an all-embracing aesthetic, which extended from his celebrated mobiles and stabiles (his standing sculptures) to jewelry, tapestries, rugs, paintings, set design, and even an airplane. 

4. Perennially beloved by collectors and artists alike, Calder’s work is in the public eye more than ever today thanks to record auction prices (a mobile sold for $26 million at Christie’s last year) and such high-profile museum exhibitions as the upcoming survey of his mobiles and other kinetic work at Tate Modern this fall.