Permanent Collection: Alexander Calder's Untitled @ The National Gallery of Art
One can hardly visit the East Building of the National Gallery of Art without noticing the large mobile by Alexander Calder soaring over the atrium. The mobile, Untitled, was designed specifically for this space, and Calder utilized new materials and methods to make the piece, which is visually both powerful and delicate.
In the early 1970s, the Board of Trustees at the National Gallery commissioned the East Building, which would be dedicated to modern art. When they thought about decorating the new space, they decided to ask the most celebrated artists of the moment to create pieces. Calder was included, since he was known for his work in the 1920s and 1930s, making kinetic sculpture filled with humor. He was commissioned on May 3, 1973 to design a sculpture for the atrium, and he worked closely with architect I.M. Pei to ensure that the mobile would complement the design of the building.
Calder was a renowned American sculptor who worked primarily with steel, a material that would be too heavy for a work suspended in the atrium. His interests in space, engineering and technology led him to honeycombed aluminum, a light yet durable material originally developed for aeronautics, which would respond effectively to air currents, a characteristic that would befit a mobile.
He made his first mobiles in the 1930s, and used a system of weights and counterbalances so his creations would move freely when suspended, powered by slight air currents. Untitled is the largest of these, at 76 feet long and nearly 1,000 pounds. Smaller examples are on display elsewhere in the National Gallery, along with some of Calder’s famous colorful animal sculptures.
Untitled underwent conservation treatment in 2004. National Gallery staff and engineers, including artist-engineer Paul Matisse, the grandson of Henri Matisse and a close friend of Calder's, took apart the sculpture on April 19, 2004 so that its colored parts could be cleaned and repainted, and its metal surfaces repaired. The mobile went back on view June 7, 2005.
The National Gallery of Art is located on the National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.