The Eagle

Date1971

Model by Alexander Calder American, 1898 - 1976

Label Text[During the Calder: A Balancing Act exhibition] This is a live-feed, real-time video of Calder's Eagle as installed at our Olympic Sculpture Park. Since its opening in 2007, the Eagle has come to personify the park and is already a beloved landmark within the city of Seattle.

A third-generation American sculptor, Alexander Calder studied mechanical engineering before studying art. In the 1920s-30s while in Paris, he developed two distinctive genres of sculpture: mobiles, or sculptures that move, and stabiles, which are stationary. The Eagle, created at a time when Calder was recognized as one of the world's greatest sculptors, reveals the artist's distinctive combination of pragmatism and poetry. Architectural in its construction and scale, The Eagle displays its curving wings, assertive stance, and pointy beak in a form that is weightless, colorful and abstract.

Alexander Calder was born in Lawton, Pennsylvania and moved to New York in 1923, attending the Art Students League, and traveled repeatedly to Paris, where he first exhibited his work in 1927. Calder retrospectives have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, the Guggenheim Museum, New York in 1964 and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1976. Calder was awarded the Gold Medal for Sculpture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1971, the year he created The Eagle.

Funding for the conservation of this artwork was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Object number2000.69

ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist by Fort Worth National Bank, Texas; Bank One, Fort Worth, Texas; Loutex, Fort Worth, Texas; private collection; purchased by Seattle Art Museum with funds from Jon and Mary Shirley, Seattle, Washington, 2000

Photo CreditPhoto: Benjamin Benschneider

How does art come into being? Out of volumes, motion, spaces carved out within the surrounding space, the universe.

Alexander Calder

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act, Oct. 15, 2009 - Apr. 11, 2010.Published ReferencesCorrin, Lisa Graziose, et al. Olympic Sculpture Park. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2007; p. 28, reproduced pp. 8, 29 (as Eagle). Ishikawa, Chiyo, ed. A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2007; pp. 94-95, reproduced pl. 70 (as Eagle). Kangas, Matthew, "Sculpture", October 2007, Vol 26, No. 8 Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures. London: Scala Publishers, Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007; pp. 76-77, reproduced (as Eagle). Seattle Art Museum | Olympic Sculpture Park, 2007–2017. Seattle: Girlie Press, 2017; p. 5, reproduced. Gates, Mimi Gardner, and Renée Divine, eds. Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park: A Place for Art, Environment, and an Open Mind, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, in association with University of Washington Press, 2021; pp. 26, 31, 33, 35, 54, 56-57, 68n17, 69n45, 88, 95, 97, 119, 127, 150, reproduced on cover, frontispiece, pp. 6-7, 33 (fig 1.17), 36 (fig. 1.20), 39, 47 (fig. 2.7), 55 (fig. 2.13), 89 (fig. 3.13), 150 (fig. 6.9), 156 (fig. 6.18). Vansynghel, Margo. "Couple promises $200M worth of artwork to Seattle Art Museum." The Seattle Times, April 4, 2023: A1.

Credit LineGift of Jon and Mary Shirley, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum

Dimensions465 x 390 x 390 in. (1181.1 x 990.6 x 990.6 cm); estimated weight 6 tons

MediumSheet metal, bolts, and paint