To spare their son the hard life of an artist, his mother, a portrait painter, and his father, a sculptor, suggested to Alexander Calder that he study mechanical engineering. These studies should greatly assist him later in the development of his sculptures.
In 1926 he went to Paris, where he moved in avant-garde circles. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio brought him to abstraction and influenced his choice of primary colours for his works. He began creating kinetic, hanging sculptures, initially with a motor, later without, moved only by the flow of air. It was Duchamp who called them "Mobiles".
