Carmen - Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
N 40° 24.485 W 003° 41.656
30T E 441091 N 4473283
This piece, from 1974, was acquired by the Spanish State and was first installed in the patio of the Sabatini Building in 1992.
Waymark Code: WMZ5W7
Location: Comunidad de Madrid, Spain
Date Posted: 09/15/2018
Views: 4
Carmen is a monumental standing mobile, which follows the typology Alexander Calder began in 1958 with La Spirale, which he built for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. It consists of a fixed supporting section with a mobile structure on top. Eight riveted blades are moved by air currents, giving the piece the playful, optimistic component so essential to Calder’s art while also producing a spontaneous contrast between the aesthetic industrial solidity of the base and the variability of the upper part. Like other pieces by the artist, the title of Carmen is a woman’s name, which, while it certainly has literary and musical connotations, does not make the sculpture a simple illustration, but actually functions as an independent work, as pointed out by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946: “Calder does not ‘suggest’ anything: it captures genuine living movements and shapes them. ‘Mobiles’ have no meaning, make you think of nothing but themselves. They are, that is all; they are absolutes.”
Title: Carmen
Artist: Alexander Calder
Media (materials) used: Aluminium sheet, iron sheet and paint
Location (specific park, transit center, library, etc.): Museo Reina Sofía
Date of creation or placement: 1974
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