EUGENE–An expert on the works of Alexander Calder will discuss the modern sculptor and his art in a free lecture at the University of Oregon.

Marla Prather, curator of 20th-century art for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will present "Kinetic Abstraction: The Sculpture of Alexander Calder" at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in Room 115 of Lawrence Hall, 1190 Franklin Blvd. The UO Department of Art History is sponsoring the event. A reception will follow the talk.

"Alexander Calder was one of the great public sculptors of the twentieth century, able to work in both figurative and abstract modes. Using sheet metal and aluminum, Calder broke away from the traditional notion of sculpture with the invention of the mobile," says Kathleen Nicholson, head of the UO art history department.

Prather is the first speaker to fill the newly created Sponenburgh Lectureship in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. The lectureship was established in 1997 through an endowment fund at the University of Oregon Foundation to advance the appreciation, education and scholarship of the history of sculpture.

Prather, curator for the centenary exhibition, "Alexander Calder, 1898-1976," will illustrate her talk with selected slides of pieces in the exhibition.

The Calder exhibition opened in March 1998 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Since then, it has traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where the exhibition will continue until Dec. 1.

The exhibit features approximately 250 sculptures that document Calder’s career development as an artist. Supporting works on paper, paintings and jewelry provide additional context for the exhibition. Ranging from small to monumental in scale, Calder’s works include wire constructions, mobiles, standing mobiles, constellations and towers.

Previously, Prather organized a large exhibition of paintings by Dutch-born American artist Willem de Kooning which opened at the National Gallery of Art in 1994 and then traveled to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and to London’s Tate Gallery. She also is the co-author, with H.H. Arnason, of the leading textbook of 20th-century art, "Modern Art," the fourth edition of which was published this fall.

For more information, contact the UO Department of Art History, (541) 346-3675.

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