It is Thursday, so we talk about Art.

This is the second (of five) pieces I would bring to the discussion on the ‘Excuse Me’ podcast. It is the ‘Peacock’ mobile by Alexander Calder.

Art history in the highschool curriculum spent a lot of time on Greek and European (ish before and after the Renaissance). So when it got around to Modern it is Picasso (obvs.) and due to proximity to the AGO, Henry Moore (meh). But our text also featured a Calder mobile. I’m pretty sure I wrote a mini-essay on it/him at some point.

This likely wouldn’t have been on my list a year ago, but I was in Montreal for a concert (side note; if you have a chance to see Meute live, you 100% should seize the opportunity) and it was raining so I went to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for the afternoon. I turn the corner and saw ‘Four Black Bottoms and Six Reds’ hanging from the ceiling and immediately recognized it as a Calder mobile. Seeing one of them in person is so much more impressive than in a text.

Looking at the list of mobiles he produced, I think, if money and space were not a limiting factor, this is the one I would want. I absolutely have no place to display it, but since I have infinite money in this scenario, I would hang it in the front foyer of my house, under some understated lighting fixture in order to have it cast shadows as it moves.

You should #buymoreart or at least, think about what you would buy.

Alexander Calder Peacock mobile