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The outline of a fish is made with bent, colored wire and then hung with fragments of colored glass to loosely resemble scales in this free-floating sculpture. In this photograph, the open mouth faces our left. The body is made with a thick gauge, mustard-yellow wire. Finer, gold-colored wire creates a honeycomb-like pattern within the body. Pieces of colored glass hang within most of the cells. The irregularly shaped pieces are clear or in tones of brick red, indigo or sky blue, amber brown, pearl white, or emerald green. A few cells have little bits of metal, including a washer, a disk pierced with holes, and a spiraling piece of wire. The thicker yellow wire makes a circle near the mouth, creating an eye, which is hung with two pieces of glass in plum purple and pale lilac. To our right, the tail is as tall as the body and half its length. It is outlined with thick, red wire. Another piece of wire runs along the middle of the tail, and thinner red wire is strung from the central wire to the upper and lower edges, mimicking the rays of the fish’s fin. A fin along the bottom center of the fish’s body is made with thick, royal-blue wire that balances across the bottom rim of the fish. On the side closer to us, the blue wire is bent into a boomerang shape. It is suspended within a cell close to the bottom of the fish’s body, and is balanced on the far side with a piece of cobalt-blue glass. A hand-shaped pendant hangs from the point of the fin closest to us. The wall behind the hanging sculpture is fog gray.

Alexander Calder

Finny Fish, 1948

East Building, Tower Level — Gallery 606

Medium

steel rod, wire, glass, objects, and paint

Dimensions

overall: 66 x 152.4 cm (26 x 60 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls

Accession Number

1996.120.15

Artists / Makers

Alexander Calder (sculptor) American, 1898 - 1976

Image Use

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Copyright

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York; gift 1996 to NGA.

Associated Names

Perls, Klaus

Exhibition History

1997: Alexander Calder: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1997, no. 25, color repro.

1998: Alexander Calder: 1898-1976, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1998, no. 214, color repro.

2004: Calder, Miró, Fondation Beyeler, Basel; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, not in catalogue.

2010: Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance and Joy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2010, pl. 52.

Bibliography

1997: Alexander Calder: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997: no. 25.

1998: Alexander Calder: 1898-1976. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1998: no. 214.

2010: Warren, Lynne. Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy. Exh. cat. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2010-2012,\.