1964 photograph of sculptor Calder, taken in Sache, France. Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 - November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known as the originator of the mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture made with delicately balanced or suspended components which move in response to motor power or air currents. His stationary sculptures are called stabiles. In the 1930s, the Berkshire Museum in Massachusetts gave Calder his first public commission, a pair of mobiles designed for the Museum's new theater. In the 1950s, Calder increasingly concentrated his efforts on producing monumental sculptures Notable examples are .125 for JFK Airport in 1957, La Spirale for UNESCO in Paris 1958 and Man (L'Homme), commissioned for Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada. Calder's largest sculpture until that time, 20.5 meters high, was El Sol Rojo, constructed outside the Aztec Stadium for the 1968 Summer Olympics "Cultural Olympiad" events in Mexico City. He died unexpectedly in 1976, at the age of 78, shortly after opening a major retrospective show at the Whitney Museum in New York. Two months after his death, the artist was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.