Kinetic sculpture is three-dimensional art that incorporates movement as an essential element — driven by motors, air currents, or the viewer.
Kinetic sculpture is sculpture in which movement is integral to the work. The genre was anticipated by Naum Gabo's 'Kinetic Construction (Standing Wave)' of 1920 and by Marcel Duchamp's 'Bicycle Wheel' (1913), but its definitive figure is the American Alexander Calder, whose suspended 'mobiles' — coined as a term by Duchamp in 1931 — revolutionised sculpture by introducing balance, air currents, and time as compositional elements. Calder's wire and sheet-metal forms turn slowly above viewers, never repeating the same configuration twice. Jean Tinguely built mechanical sculptures that destroyed themselves; George Rickey created stainless-steel sculptures balanced so precisely that the slightest breeze sets them in motion. In contemporary work, Theo Jansen's 'Strandbeests' walk along Dutch beaches powered by wind, and Anthony Howe's wind-driven sculptures appear before millions in the Olympic ceremonies of Rio (2016). Kinetic sculpture asks the viewer to wait, watch, and accept that the work will not look the same twice.