Known for his huge, geometrical mobiles — abstractions hanging and spinning in space — sculptor Alexander Calder started as a child by making toys. As an adult, among the radical artists of 1920’s Paris, he crafted a metal menagerie of acrobats, ringmasters, lions and lion tamers. He even made stretcher-bearers in case someone got hurt. Calder would put on performances with the figures, doing all the voices himself and roaring like a lion. Jonathan Mitchell wondered what makes a grown man live out his circus dream.
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