The late, iconic Alexander Calder is one of those artists that, even if the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, you have surely seen one of his famously unmistakable sculptures or mobiles, the latter which have inspired countless knockoffs that can be found dangling above so many babies' cribs now.

Calder was born in Philadelphia in 1898 to a pair of prominent local artists, with his father, also named Alexander, well-known for his public installations around the city. Although the younger Alexander started making art by the time he was just nine years old, his parents most definitely did not want him following that rather uncertain career path. So he instead enrolled at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, to study mechanical engineering. (Though he admitted to not even being sure what mechanical engineering was at the time.)

Eventually moving to Paris in 1926, he enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and ultimately befriended some of the most prominent artists of the day, including Marcel Duchamp. Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, and Jean Arp. Léger would actually write the catalog preface for Calder's first solo exhibition, at the Galerie Percier in 1931.

Calder and his wife Louisa would return to America in 1933, settling into a farmhouse in Roxbury, CT. Over the next few decades, he would produce a prolific body of work, while developing a multi-faceted style which skillfully combined imagination, engineering, playfulness and occasionally enigmatic eeriness while, quite literally, incorporating the surrounding air as a crucial element.

The breathtaking, career-spanning exhibition currently showing at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is titled 'Calder: Rêver en Equilibre', which translates to 'dreaming in balance', and offers a rare opportunity to witness how his works fascinatingly interplay with legendary architect Frank Gehry's awe-inspiring museum building. Both inarguably invented and cultivated completely new visual languages throughout the 20th Century, which guided the conception and realization of their inimitable creations.

Guest curators Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer collectively observe that, “Calder’s innovative approach expanded the dimensions of sculpture to include time as an essential fourth dimension.” Space itself, of course, was another essential dimension.

On view through August 16 is a breathtaking cross section of his oeuvre, from his fantastical kinetic sculptures and mobiles, to his large scale installations, to drawings, paintings, and even his uniquely sculptural jewelry, across 3000 square meters of exhibition space. (To give one an idea of the complex nature of installing such monumental sculptures, this Fondation LV Instagram post edifyingly narrates the details.)

Most notably, for the first time in its 12-year history, the museum extended the exhibit out onto its circular lawn, where Calder's massive, fantastical sculpts seem to have come to life, and appear to be creeping away from the museum entrance, as if hoping to spend some time strolling the streets of Paris.

It's not hard to imagine the artist himself appreciating this amusing gesture.

Watch: This engaging YouTube video from London South gives a bit more insight into Calder's process, and offers tips on how to try to recreate it.