DOTS AND SWIRLS, ALEXANDER CALDER TAPESTRIES, Western Washington University Art Gallery

Detail, Alexander Calder Tapestry, Western Washington University Art Gallery.

When you think of artist Alexander Calder, you picture his colorful mobiles and giant stabiles. But he also worked in other media. In 1974-1975 he designed a series of 13 colorful tapestries made of dyed and braided maguey-fibers. They were manufactured in Nicaragua. A set of the tapestries, conserved in 2012 to their original brilliance by a group of students and volunteers at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, under the direction of Geoffrey I. Brown, is currently on display in the gallery of the Performing Arts Center on campus.

On a visit to Bellingham last summer I had the opportunity to see the tapestries. In each, bold colors and shapes create striking patterns and designs. The tightly woven fibers create a subtle surface texture. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Calder tapestries are a gift of Niels H. Lauersen to the Collection of Western Gallery, Western Washington University. For more about other art on exhibit at Western Washington University, click HERE.

ALEXANDER CALDER Art at SFMOMA: Mobiles, Stabiles and More

Fish Bowl by Alexander Calder at SFMOMA

Making a mobile is not only an exercise in creating visual balance, but actual physical balance of the various elements. The all-time master of the mobile is Alexander Calder. At the San Francisco Museum of Art a large room is dedicated to his work.
I hadn’t been to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art since it was remodeled and expanded several years ago. I went recently to see the spectacular retrospective exhibit Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again (which ended September 2nd) but on my way to the Warhol exhibit I was side tracked in the large room where works of Alexander Calder were displayed.

Mobiles by Alexander Calder

Large mobiles hung from the ceiling, their colorful flat shapes seeming to float in mid-air as the wires slowly rotated. Outside on the rooftop patio were a number of Calder’s large stabiles, lurking like large beasts enjoying the sun. But my favorite was a small piece–a wire fish bowl, complete with a snail and its spiral shell inching up the side of the bowl. It was like a 3-D drawing, using black wire instead of a pencil.
I once made a mobile in one of my art classes in college, using  found materials (tiny blocks of wood and other scraps I found at a construction site.) I discovered that it is not so easy to achieve the exact perfect balance  when hanging the various wires! Which makes me admire the beauty and execution of Calder’s work even more.

Entrance to SFMOMA