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Big Bird (maquette), 1936

Work

Big Bird (maquette)

Date 1936
Media
Sheet metal, wire, and paint
Dimensions
13 1⁄4" × 8 1⁄4" × 7 1⁄4"
Collection
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Gift of the Estate of Katherine S. Dreier
Stabile
Historical Photos  4
Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles (1937)
Installation photograph, Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937Photograph by Herbert Matter © Calder Foundation, New York
Installation photograph, Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937
Photograph by Herbert Matter
Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles (1937)
Installation photograph, Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937Photograph by Herbert Matter © Calder Foundation, New York
Installation photograph, Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937
Photograph by Herbert Matter
Inventory drawing for Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles (1937)
Inventory drawing of 27 objects considered for inclusion in Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Inventory drawing of 27 objects considered for inclusion in Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Verso of double-sided installation drawing of 33 objects in Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles (1937)
Verso of double-sided installation drawing of 33 objects in Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Verso of double-sided installation drawing of 33 objects in Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1937Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Related exhibitions  2
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (1937)

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. Calder: Stabiles & Mobiles. 23 February–13 March 1937.

Solo Exhibition
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1998)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Alexander Calder: 1898–1976. 29 March–12 July 1998.

Solo Exhibition
Related works  1
Big Bird (1937)
Big Bird, 1937
Archive
Works / Stabile 251
Untitled (1936)
Untitled, 1936
Ex-Octopus (maquette) (1936)
Ex-Octopus (maquette), 1936
Stabile (1936)
Stabile, 1936
Gibraltar (1936)
Gibraltar, 1936
Related Timeline
1930–1936
1930–1936 Shift to Abstraction

Following a visit in October of 1930 to Piet Mondrian’s studio, where he was impressed by the environmental installation, Calder made his first wholly abstract compositions and invented the kinetic sculpture now known as the mobile. Coined for these works by Marcel Duchamp in 1931, the word “mobile” refers to both “motion” and “motive” in French. He also created stationary abstract works that Jean Arp dubbed “stabiles.”