Flamingo (sculpture)

Sculpture in Chicago, Illinois, by Alexander Calder

Flamingo

Flamingo

Location in Chicago

Artist| Alexander Calder
Year| October 25, 1974
Type| painted steel stabile
Dimensions| 1,620 cm (636 in)
Location| Chicago
Coordinates| 41°52′44″N 87°37′47″W﻿ / ﻿41.87881°N 87.62967°W﻿ / 41.87881; -87.62967
Owner| General Services Administration[1]

Flamingo, a sculpture by American artist Alexander Calder, is a 53-foot-tall (16 m)[2] stabile located in the Federal Plaza in front of the Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois, United States.[3] 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.[4]

## Attributes

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Flamingo weighs 50 tons, is composed of steel, and is vermilion in color. Calder gave the stabile its color, which has come to be called "Calder red",[5] to offset it from the black and steel surroundings of nearby office buildings, including the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed Kluczynski Federal Building.[6][7] The stabile is an art form which Calder pioneered. It is an abstract structure that is completely stationary, as opposed to a mobile, which can move with air currents. In 2012, the sculpture received a fresh paint job in its characteristic color.[8]

## Commissioning and unveiling

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Calder was commissioned to design the sculpture because of his well-established international reputation; the space, surrounded by rectangular modern buildings, necessitated the kind of arching forms and dynamic surfaces that a large-scale Calder stabile could provide.[9] Flamingo was the first work of art commissioned by the General Services Administration under the federal Percent for Art program, which allocates a percentage of a project's budget to public art.[10][11] Calder unveiled the model for Flamingo on April 23, 1973, at the Art Institute of Chicago; the sculpture was presented to the public for the first time on October 25, 1974, at the same time that Calder's Universe mobile was unveiled at the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower). The day was proclaimed "Alexander Calder Day" and featured a circus parade.[10]

## Spatial relationships

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Flamingo as viewed from the Willis Tower skydeck Flamingo sculpture in relation to the surrounding buildings.

Despite the massive size of the sculpture, its design is such that viewers can walk underneath and around it, thus enabling one to perceive it in human scale.[5] The shape of Flamingo alludes to the natural and animal realm, which is a stark contrast to more literal interpretations in sculpture from previous decades.[12]

Calder's structure is a prominent example of the constructivist movement, first popularized in Russia in the early 20th century. Constructivism refers to sculpture that is made from smaller pieces which are joined.[13]

A maquette of the stabile was formerly displayed inside the Loop Station post office in the Federal Plaza.[6] It currently resides in the Art Institute of Chicago's Modern Wing.

## See also

[edit]

* List of public art in Chicago
* Flying Dragon, a nearby Calder sculpture also utilizing the color Calder red

## References

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1. ^ "Search results for: Flamingo calder, page 1 | Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution".
2. ^ "Chicago Public Library". Retrieved May 4, 2007.
3. ^ "Art Inventories Catalogue". Smithsonian Institution. 2004. Retrieved July 1, 2007.
4. ^ "about.com Chicago". Archived from the original on August 16, 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
5. ^ a b "The Chicago Public Art Guide" (PDF). winterdelights.com. City of Chicago Department of Public Affairs. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
6. ^ a b Higdon, Hal. "Starting with Picasso: Chicago's Finest Art Isn't All in the Art Institute". halhigdon.com. Archived from the original on December 31, 2009. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
7. ^ May, Stephen. "Alexander Calder at the National Gallery of Art". antiquesandthearts.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
8. ^ Lodge, Robert (2013). "NOTES FOR A HISTORY OF "CALDER RED" COLOR AND ITS PAINTS IN THE UNITED STATES IN RELATION TO THE RECOATINGS OF ALEXANDER CALDER'S FLAMINGO (1973) AND LA GRANDE VITESSE (1969) AND OTHER CALDER STABILES" (PDF). sculptureconservation.com.[permanent dead link]
9. ^ Joan Marter (July 1979). "Alexander Calder's Stabiles: Monumental Public Sculpture in America". American Art Journal. 11 (3). American Art Journal, Vol. 11, No. 3: 75–85\. doi:10.2307/1594168. JSTOR 1594168.
10. ^ a b "Calder Foundation: Calder's Life". Archived from the original on April 16, 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2007.
11. ^ Wetenhall, John (Fall–Winter 1993). "A Brief History of Percent-for-Art in America" (PDF). Public Art Review (9). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 26, 2011.
12. ^ Joan Marter (July–August 1998). "The Legacy of Alexander Calder". Sculpture. Vol. 17, no. 6.
13. ^ Hubbard, Guy (January 2002). "Constructivism". Arts & Activities. Vol. 130, no. 6\. p. 37.

## External links

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* Entry in Inventory of American Sculpture/Save Outdoor Sculpture

* v
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Alexander Calder

Sculptures|

* Cirque Calder (1926)
* Mercury Fountain (1937)
* Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939)
* Snow Flurry (1948–1959)
* Floating Clouds (1953)
* The Whirling Ear (1958)
* The Four Elements (1961)
* Teodelapio (1962)
* The Crab (1962)
* Sky Hooks (1962)
* La Grande Voile (The Big Sail) (1965)
* Gwenfritz (1968)
* Spinal Column (1968)
* La Grande Vitesse (1969)
* Bent Propeller (1970)
* Eagle (1971)
* Four Arches (1973–1974)
* Flamingo (1974)
* Cheval Rouge (1974)
* Flying Dragon (1975)
* Intermediate Model for the Arch (1975)
* Saurien (1975)
* Calder's set for Socrate (1976)
* Homage to Jerusalem (1977)
* Mountains and Clouds (1986)

Related|

* Mobile
* Alexander Stirling Calder (father)
* Alexander Milne Calder (grandfather)
* Calder Gardens

* v
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* e

Public art in Chicago

Works|

* 8th Street Fountain
* Agora
* The Alarm
* Allow Me
* America's Courtyard
* Balbo Monument
* Batcolumn
* Big Beaver Totem Pole
* The Bowman and The Spearman
* Brachiosaurus replicas
* Burnham Pavilions
* Chevron
* Chicago Picasso
* Chicago Rising from the Lake
* Chicago Stock Exchange Arch
* Children's Fountain
* Cloud Gate
* Constellation
* Crack the Whip
* Crossing
* Crown Fountain
* The Crusader
* Cubi VII
* Dream Lady
* Eli Bates Fountain
* Eternal Silence
* Flamingo
* Flying Dragon
* Fountain Girl
* Fountain of the Great Lakes
* Fountain of Time
* Goethe Monument
* Governor Horner State Memorial
* Green Lightning
* Horse and Rider
* Joseph Rosenberg Fountain
* Kwanusila
* Large Interior Form, 1953–54
* LGBT veterans monument
* Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument
* Lions
* Looking Into My Dreams, Awilda
* Magdalene
* Man Enters the Cosmos
* Man with Fish
* Miró's Chicago
* Monument with Standing Beast
* Moose (W-02-03)
* Mural of Robin Williams
* Nuclear Energy
* Olmec Head, Number 8
* San Marco II
* Siblings
* A Signal of Peace
* Spiral Galaxy
* Spirit of Music
* Statue of The Republic
* Untitled (Rückriem)
* Untitled (Wool)
* Victory Monument
* We Will

| Portrait
sculptures|

* John Peter Altgeld
* Jack Brickhouse
* Christopher Columbus†
* Nicolaus Copernicus
* Leif Erikson
* Benjamin Franklin
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Nathan Hale
* Alexander Hamilton
* Karel Havlíček
* Heald Square Monument
* Alexander von Humboldt
* Michael Jordan
* Benito Juárez
* Tadeusz Kościuszko
* Irv Kupcinet
* Robert Cavelier de La Salle
* Abraham Lincoln
* The Chicago Lincoln
* The Head of State
* The Man
* John Logan
* William McKinley
* Richard J. Oglesby
* Ryne Sandberg
* Jean Baptiste Point du Sable
* Friedrich Schiller
* William Shakespeare
* Philip Sheridan
* Georg Solti
* Emanuel Swedenborg

|

Related|

* Art Institute of Chicago Building
* Boeing Galleries
* Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet
* Gold Star Families Memorial and Park
* Graffiti in Chicago

Key: † No longer extant or on public display
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