© Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Currently not on view
Model for Five Disks: One Empty,
1969
Alexander Calder, 1898–1976; born Lawnton, PA; died New York, NY; active Paris, France, and Roxbury, CT
y1970-7
Calder is best known for his kinetic sculptures, or mobiles; his stationary sculptures, such as Five Disks: One Empty—for which this work is a model—are known as stabiles. This term was coined by his fellow artist and friend Hans Arp, who wanted to capture the sensation of momentum and lightness he saw in the stationary sculptures. Princeton graduate and Museum of Modern Art curator Alfred Barr invited Calder to make the large-scale work for the Princeton campus. The sculpture was originally painted orange to honor Princeton’s colors, but the artist requested that it be repainted black after observing it from atop the thirteen-story-tall Fine Hall tower, across from which the sculpture sits.
Information
Title
Model for Five Disks: One Empty
Dates
1969
Maker
Medium
Black-painted sheet aluminum
Dimensions
56.2 × 36 × 28 cm (22 1/8 × 14 3/16 × 11 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist, in honor of Alfred H. Barr Jr., Class of 1922
Object Number
y1970-7
Signatures
Signed and dated on foot: AC/69
Culture
Type
Subject
- "Acquisitions 1970", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 30, no. 1 (1971): p. 22-30., p. 27
- Patrick Joseph Kelleher, Living with Modern Sculpture: the John B. Putnam, Jr., Memorial Collection, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 1982)., cat. no. 3; p. 44-47
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 100 (illus.)
