As a part of our Michigan trip, we headed to Grand Rapids not only to see a sculpture by my favorite artist but to check out Zach's old college and Kendall College of Art & Design. It was a pleasant day filled with iced coffee & turkey BLTs on naan in one of the campus cafes. We walked around the city until we stumbled upon La Grande Vitesse, a sculpture by my fave artist Alexander Calder.
This giant bright orange sculpture, or stabile (counter to his mobiles - my fave!), is located on a large concrete plaza near the city hall building. It is super awesome from all angles! The photo above show the common view taken for postcards, etc. In addition to the top image, here are some other views:
I love how the sculpture changes as you move. A sort of stable mobile.....you are the one moving. Pretty nifty.
This was one of my favorite days. We ran into Zach's uncle on the plaza as well. Since Zach is growing a lumberjack beard, his uncle didn't even recognize him! After we took these pictures, we headed to Kendall College of Art & Design. We forgot it was like a Tuesday though, so we almost interrupted a critique in progress right in front of the ceramics studio. I was sad that we didn't get to tour more, but it's a pretty cool place.
I think I have a few more Michigan posts for you through April & it's been super nice to be able to have an outlet for all my pictures! I hope you've enjoyed seeing a bit of Michigan too :)
Holy moly that thing is huge!!
ReplyDeleteDid you see Motu Viget while you were there? It's tucked away in a corner of the square, behind La Grande Vitesse. It's one of my favs and my namesake!
ReplyDeleteJen
motu viget
I'm doing research for the company that made a scale model of the sculpture (with Calder's approval) - that's supposed to be mounted on a pedestal near the base of the sculputre. I haven't been there in years, but don't see it in any of your pics. There is the placque describing it, but the model is a 1/93 (if I remember correctly) size and was placed so blind "viewers" could get a sense of the whole sculpture. Do you rmember seeing it, and if so, did you happen to get any other pics that include it? I'd really love to be able to include it with my report.
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ReplyDeleteI found a picture of the scale model (I had the scale size wrong) but it doesn't seem to be located where I thought it was.
ReplyDeletehttp://chicago-outdoor-sculptures.blogspot.com/2011/09/grand-rapids-michigan-la-grande-vitesse.html