Jean Lipman (1909–1998)

What a lovely book. I've just gone back to it after many years to do a short review and I'm amazed at how well it has stood the test of the years. It's rather biographical of Andy Calder and covers his childhood, and years in Paris rarther well. I was impressed by the fact that Andy had a workshop at at the age of 10 and always had a workshop after this. He comes across as a thoroughly likeable person as well as a highly inventive artist-craftsperson. At one stage....after reading this book, I tried my hand at making a figure out of one single piece of wire and it's been hanging on the wall of various houses ever since. (I think it may have been binned recently). But I've really liked Calder's work and after reading (or seeing a documentary on him) he gave out the tip that to make mobiles, you simply start at the bottom piece and work your way up.......I gave it a try. This would have been in about 1973 and I was in NZ so I used a long stiff and hard piece of kelp as the base horizonta (readily available on the sea shores of NZ). All went well for about a week but then the humidity changed and the kelp sagged into a bedraggled ribbon.
Lovely pictures...... and many of them....... both in colour and black and white. And the book is large format so we have the benefit of the larger size to appreciate the pictures. I've also had the benefit of seeing Calder's work in many locations throughout the world ...including in odd locations such as the Hakone Art Museum in Japan. He's such a delightfully inventive character ...ranging from miniature circus performances, to jewellery, fabrics, theatre costumes and sets, wood sculpture, oil paintings, mobiles, stabiles, and even decorated aeroplanes. It's mentioned that as a child he saw a combination of colour in a football teams insignia....red, blue and black and he's always liked this combination. I guess it helped his career that he grew up surrounded by artists (he father was a sculptor) and, although he enrolled in Engineering at college he was able to turn his engineering skills into art. Probably of great use when talking to the steel fabricators who turned his maquette's into major structures. Love the book. An easy five stars from me.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and still enjoy leafing through it.… (mer)