Subscribe for Updates

The Calder Sidewalk

The Legendary Sculptor’s Immobile Creation in Rustic Terrazzo

Alexander Calder is best known for his abstract mobiles. There are also his stabiles (as his nonmoving sculptures came to be known). Then there’s his sidewalk.

Calder sidewalk NYCThe 75-foot piece of permanent sidewalk art is always on view, where it was first installed in 1970, stretched out in front of three avant-garde art galleries on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The sidewalk, with its abstract design, was created late in Calder’s life and is the artist’s one sidewalk and his sole experiment in terrazzo. It is undoubtedly the most fixed, immobile, and solid of all his works: a unique reversal of the direction of the rest of his oeuvre.

 

Caulder sidewalk NYC

Caulder sidewalk NYCAccording to the New York Times, Dolly and Klaus Perls suggested the concept of a Calder-designed sidewalk on Sept. 22, 1970. Owners of the Perls Galleries at 1014 Madison Ave., the Perls were Calder’s exclusive US dealers from 1955 to his death in 1976. Calder produced the design as a gift to the Perls and in the interest of breaking new artistic ground. The Perls’ neighboring gallery owners, Robert Graham and Morton Rosenfeld, shared the cost of bringing the design to life.

A different black-and-white design was set down for each gallery: from rectangles to crescents to sunburst patterns. “Calder told us not to worry about perfect symmetry,” Mr. Perls told the Times. “He said the design would be enhanced by a few irregularities.

Share This
Share this...
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
Linkedin

Read Similar Articles