Bougainvillier

Calder created this Bougainvillier in 1947, a standing mobile of painted this sheet metal and wire. Flat, biomorphic shapes in red, yellow, black, and white hang from thin wire arms, swaying gently with air currents. The title references the tropical bougainvillea flower, and the colored forms suggest petals floating in space.

Calder invented the mobile in the early 1930s after visiting Mondrian's studio and seeing how geometric shapes could create dynamic compositions. Marcel Duchamp coined the term "mobile" for Calder's kinetic sculptures. Each piece responds to its environment: a breeze, a viewer walking past, even the building's ventilation system changes the sculpture's configuration.

This work is in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum. Calder's mobiles transformed sculpture from a static, gravity-bound art into something closer to drawing in the air.