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Mobile (art), in art, type of sculpture characterized by the ability to
move when propelled by air currents, by touch, or by a small motor
at any one time. The most striking feature of the mobile is
that, unlike traditional sculpture, it achieves its artistic effect through movement;
it is the most familiar form of kinetic art, which requires movement of some kind.
A typical mobile consists of a group of shapes, frequently abstract, that are connected
by wires, string, metal rods, or the like. Although mobiles are usually suspended,
some are designed to stand on a platform or floor. The first experimental mobiles
were the work of the French artist Marcel Duchamp in the 1920s.
The form, however, was developed to its finest expression so far
by the American sculptor Alexander Calder, beginning in the 1930s.