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Three flat metal sheets cut into different shapes and each in a single color—black, red, or blue—make up this free-standing, abstract sculpture. This photograph shows the piece in a lobby space, and the top of the sculpture nearly touches the ceiling. At the center of the sculpture, a black, tall form like a backward-facing lowercase h is topped with a triangle reminiscent of an arrow. The short leg of the h faces our left in this photograph and is angled slightly toward us. To our left and affixed to the back side of the black arrow, a red form arches from near the arrowhead to the ground to create an empty space below. Seen only from the narrow edge in this photograph, another red piece arches back and away from us, down to the floor. Whereas one could conceivably walk or crawl under the black and red arches, the third blue piece to our right is a mostly solid sheet. It is attached to the center of the wide side of the arrow, facing us, and it moves toward us at an angle to our right. A rounded triangular form is cut out of the blue sheet near the upper right.

Alexander Calder

Obus, 1972

Not on View

Medium

painted sheet metal

Dimensions

overall: 361.8 x 385.9 x 227.6 cm (142 7/16 x 151 15/16 x 89 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1983.1.49

Artists / Makers

Alexander Calder (artist) American, 1898 - 1976

Image Use

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Copyright

Inscription

on center component below horizontal ridge: AC (monogram) 72

Provenance

(Galerie Maeght, Zurich); sold 3 July 1973 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1983 to NGA.

Associated Names

Mellon, Paul

Exhibition History

1998: Alexander Calder: 1898-1976, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1998, no. 262, color repro. (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1989: Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: repro. 120, 121.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 39, repro.

1998: Alexander Calder: 1898-1976. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1998: no. 262.

1998: Blitzer, Robert. College Algebra, NJ, 1998, p. 545, repro.