MAMAC’s Calder set up on the museum’s forecourt

For the duration of the redevelopment work on the Promenade du Paillon, Stabile-mobile is being displayed on the north forecourt of the musée Matisse (in front of the former entrance to the Villa des Arènes), allowing visitors to the museum and the public in the Arènes garden to discover a major piece by one of the great masters of 20^th-century art.

Stabile-mobile has found a particularly relevant context on this forecourt: the work by Alexander Calder is not unrelated to that of Henri Matisse, in particular the paper cut-outs which also work on a vocabulary of simple, colourful shapes. Both free and dynamic, they help bring the surrounding space to life. During his meeting with the artist at his exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Louis Carré in 1946, Matisse said to him, “You are a magician“, thus affirming his admiration.

This monumental abstract work made of steel, 8 metres high and more than 7 metres wide, consists of two distinct parts: the stabile (fixed structure) and the mobile (moving element). The stabile part consists of three large black elements fixed by bolts. Balanced on the tip of the structure, the mobile part consists of a large steel pendulum on which hang blue, yellow and red discs. “I would like to make Mondrians that move”, said Alexander Calder in 1930.

Alexander Calder
Stabile-mobile, 1970
1 tripod and 3 painted metal discs
715 x 800 x 590 cm Ø disques : 60 cm – 3,5 tonnes
Inv. no 998.0.71
Collection MAMAC, Nice
More information about the work