Calder Art in Chicago

I’m back from vacation in Chicago. I saw one thing that I knew all of you would love, but I wasn’t allowed to photograph it.

One of my favorite artists, the sculptor Alexander Calder, made a 1952 bird stabile (looks like a mobile, but doesn’t move) from coffee cans. It is very beautiful in its own way, and shows Calder to be somewhat of an early junk artist! Metal was scarce because of World War II, so that’s part of the reason Calder used old coffee cans for that particular piece.

The stabile, called Bird, is on currently on loan to the Museum of Contemporary Art until March 09. Also in the collection, an awesome Chat-mobile! That’s a cool cat…

But sadly, I can’t show you those images. It was difficult to obey the no photography rule, but I did it. I can show you a Calder stabile from Federal Plaza in Chicago. Here it is:

Flamingo by Alexander Calder. Weighs 50 tons!

Image by Peggy Rowland. In case you’re wondering about the balloons, a beer fest was going on…