What comes to mind when you hear the word “sculpture”? Perhaps a stone bust of a Greek God. A statue dedicated to a historical figure. Maybe an abstract shape with complex meaning.

You certainly don’t think of mobiles, although that’s exactly what you find at the SFMOMA’s Elemental Calder exhibit. Located in a gallery on the third floor, you find yourself surrounded by a vast collection of Alexander Calder’s sculptural work. Enormous mobiles and stabiles that depict the four elements – earth, fire, water and air.

Alexander Calder was an American sculptor who is best known for his innovative mobiles that embrace chance in their aesthetic and his monumental public sculptures. Born into a family of artists, Calder's work first gained attention in Paris in the 1920s and was soon championed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, resulting in a retrospective exhibition in 1943. Major retrospectives were also held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.