Jeune fille et sa suite - Detroit, Michigan
N 42° 21.540 W 083° 03.796
17T E 330085 N 4691698
In the early 1970s, the American Telephone and Telephone Company (A.T.&T.) commissioned Alexander Calder to design a sculpture for their new Detroit offices located at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Cass in downtown Detroit.
Waymark Code: WMNYG7
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 05/24/2015
Views: 3
From that year through 1985, this sculpture was painted black; the color that Calder selected for it. However, by the 1980s many of Calder’s large sculptures in the United States were painted red. This had become the “traditional” color for his sculptures. Thus, in 1985, A.T.&T. officials apparently decided that their sculpture should be painted in “Calder red.”
In 2006, A.T.&T. removed this sculpture from their Michigan Avenue building. Sometime later they donated it to the Detroit Institute of Art and, in May, 2008, that organization installed it at the northeast corner of their campus.
Denis Alan Nawrocki, in his definitive description of public art in Detroit, Art in Detroit Public Places, 3rd edition (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008) observed that the large figure with the prominent curves in the stabile pictured above may suggest a woman with prominent breasts and buttocks. The more geometrical forms on either sides of the curvilinear shape may suggest her possible suitors.
Calder designed this 22-ton steel piece in his shop in France. It was sent to Detroit where it was assembled and painted first in black, then in red and later in black once again.
Title: Jeune fille et sa suite
Artist: Alexandre Calder
Media (materials) used: Painted Steel
Location (specific park, transit center, library, etc.): Detroit Insitute of Arts
Date of creation or placement: 1970
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