THRU SEPTEMBER 24
Denver Botanic Gardens’ exhibition of iconic American artist Alexander Calder’s bold sculptures – Calder: Monumental – is the first outdoor show of Calder’s work in the West and the first solo outdoor exhibition in the U.S. in more than a decade.
Calder devoted much of his later working years to monumental sculpture, many of which were public commissions. Gracing public plazas, landmark atriums and even airport halls, Calder’s works transformed the surrounding space, definitively changing the public’s experience of it. True to his practice, Calder’s monumental works are made of industrial materials and bolted steel plates, and the works exhibited in Calder: Monumental are no exception. In some cases, a mobile structure sways at the top of the sculpture to create a “standing mobile.” In addition to the outdoor sculptures, one indoor mobile in monumental scale is presented in the Boettcher Memorial Center, on loan from the Denver Art Museum. The featured abstract and figurative sculptures span from 1956–1976.