| By Bonnie Turbeville |
| Ohhhhhh, All of you Attorneys, Paralegals and Legal Assistants have seen this gorgeous “stabile”” sculpture in the Federal Plaza in front of the Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago, Walk underneath and around “Flamingo” and you will see how complex this piece is. The inner and outer structure reflect cubism and surrealist qualities, in that the flamingo becomes fractured and not realllllly looking like a flamingo except in the elongated steel leg or is it a neck and a leg? Calder never wanted his playful pieces to be serious and dedicated his art to deriving meaning in the structure itself. The orange red now has become an artist color “Calder Red.” “Flamingo”, created by the American artist Alexander Calder, is a 53-foot tall stabile as Calder called the immobile sculptures differentiating from his mobile sculptures. It was commissioned by the United States General Services Administration and was unveiled in 1974, although Calder’s signature on the sculpture indicates it was constructed in 1973. Alexander Calder, July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor who is best known for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic and his monumental public sculptures. Born into a family of artists, Calder’s work first gained attention in Paris in the 1920, when he became friends with Jean Miro, and was soon championed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, resulting in a retrospective exhibition in 1943. Major retrospectives were also held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1964) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974). Calder’s work is in many permanent collections, most notably in the Whitney Museum of American Art, but also the Guggenheim Museum; the Museum of Modern Art; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Centre Georges Pompidou. He produced many large public works, including .125 (at JFK Airport, 1957), Pittsburgh (Carnegie International prize winner 1958, Pittsburgh International Airport) Spirale (UNESCO in Paris, 1958), Flamingo and Universe (both in Chicago, 1974), (Universe located in the former Sears Tower was dismantled when it was sold and renamed Willis Tower). and Mountains and Clouds (Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 1996). (source Wikipedia) Although primarily known for his sculpture, Calder also created paintings and prints, miniatures (such as his famous Cirque Calder), theater set design, jewelry design, tapestries and rugs, and political posters. Calder was honored by the US Postal Service with a set of five 32-cent stamps in 1998, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously in 1977, after refusing to receive it from Gerald Ford one year earlier in protest of the Vietnam War. (source Wikipedia) |