Alexander Calder
Untitled, 1976

Here we are at the center of the atrium, looking up at Alexander Calder's 76-foot-long mobile, Untitled, which he made in 1976. In commissioning the East Building, the Board of Trustees imagined a space that would be filled with modern art, and they commissioned works from some of the most celebrated artists of the moment. Not surprisingly, they tapped Alexander Calder, who had become well known in the twenties and thirties for making kinetic sculpture filled with humor. Untitled was one of Calder's largest works, and it was also one of his last, completed only a few weeks before he died. One of the really extraordinary things about this mobile is that while it weighs nearly 1,000 pounds, it moves ever so lightly, powered only by currents of air. In 1998, I. M. Pei recalled how he and J. Carter Brown, then director of the Gallery, dealt with the problem of getting the large mobile to move.

I. M. Pei: When Carter and I visited Mr. Calder–Sandy Calder–in Sachet, he took us to a ship-building factory to show us a piece of the sculpture, and it was very heavy looking, you know, because it was made by a shipyard and pieces were so heavy. And we said, "How is it going to move when it's so heavy?" and Mr. Calder shook his head and said, "Well, I don't know. These people know." That was it. Then Carter and I came back, I think you remember, we were very worried about it. We said, "This piece will not move!" in spite of what Sandy Calder said. Carter's roommate happened to be Paul Matisse, Henri Matisse's grandson, and he's also a wonderful conceptual engineer, and he made it out of–what do you call these–egg crates. The piece today that you see is made by Paul Matisse, not by the shipyard in Sachet.