A sculpture as tall as a nine-story building, motionless for a decade in the atrium of the U.S. Senate because of an earthquake, has started moving again thanks to the tenacity of two private collectors. The Calder sculpture restoration in Washington involving Jon and Kim Shirley, longtime supporters of Alexander Calder’s work, was completed with the installation that began in late August, after ten years of work and a personal investment of $10 million.
Key points
- Mountains and Clouds is Alexander Calder’s final work and the largest modern public art sculpture in Washington, D.C., second only to the Washington Monument.
- The largest cloud in the mobile component measures over 12 meters (more than 40 feet) and weighs almost a ton.
- Collectors Jon and Kim Shirley devoted $10 million and ten years of work to the restoration after an earthquake rendered the work unusable.
- The Calder Foundation discovered that the original mobile had not been made exactly as the artist intended, and applied new technologies to correct the discrepancy.
- The installation of the restored sculpture began in late August, with the support of bipartisan senators and an interagency group coordinated by the Architect of the Capitol.
Mountains and Clouds: Calder’s final work and the largest public sculpture in Washington
Mountains and Clouds is the last completed work by Alexander Calder and is also the largest modern public artwork in the U.S. capital, exceeded in size only by the Washington Monument. It is also his only piece that combines in a single installation a mobile and a stabile, the two sculptural types that made the artist famous. Located in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, the work combines a fixed structure on the ground with a suspended component that moves slowly in the air.
Dimensions and components of the work
The stabile, called “mountains,” reaches 50 feet in height, while the “clouds” mobile is designed to hang from a ceiling 90 feet high. The largest cloud, among the four that make up the mobile part, is more than 40 feet long and weighs almost a ton: figures that explain why any intervention on this structure requires specialized engineering rather than simple museum maintenance.
History and dedication of the sculpture in the U.S. Senate
Calder’s design for the Hart Building atrium was selected in 1975 by the architects of both the Capitol and the Senate building, with the approval of Senator Philip Hart, a Michigan Democrat, after whom the building is named. Calder arrived in Washington in 1976 to approve the model of the work: the next day, after returning to New York, he died.
Approval, funding, and the naming of the Hart Building
Three years later, during construction cost cuts for the building, the funds allocated to the sculpture were eliminated. It was New Jersey Senator Nicholas F. Brady who mobilized to raise the necessary resources, finding them in the patron and collector Paul Mellon, son of the founder of the National Gallery of Art. The work was finally dedicated in 1987. It should be clarified, as corrected by the same editorial staff that reported the story, that the building is named after Senator Philip Hart and not Gary Hart, as was mistakenly stated in a printed version of the original article.
The restoration led by collectors Jon and Kim Shirley
The rescue of the work began with an almost casual visit. In March 2016 Jon Shirley, former president and CEO of Microsoft, and his wife Kim, both based in Seattle and longtime Calder collectors — three years earlier they had donated 48 works from their collection, valued at $200 million, to the Seattle Art Museum — were in Washington for a meeting of the National Gallery of Art’s Collectors Committee. They took the opportunity to see Mountains and Clouds again. They found the stabile in place, but the four clouds of the mobile had disappeared.
Why the sculpture needed restoration
“It was surprising and disconcerting,” said Jon Shirley. An earthquake had made it necessary to dismantle the clouds for a structural analysis, which revealed defects serious enough to make reinstallation dangerous. It was at that moment that the couple decided to commit whatever amount was necessary to return the work to its place. Ten years and $10 million later, that effort is finally bearing fruit.
New technologies and the role of the Calder Foundation
The Shirleys emphasize that the reconstruction was not just a financial matter. The Calder Foundation, led by the artist’s grandson, Alexander S.C. Rower, found evidence in its archives that the mobile component had never been made exactly as Calder had conceived it. The restored version of Mountains and Clouds now uses new technologies to bring the work into line with the artist’s original intention, a detail that makes this intervention not just a simple restoration but a historical correction of the installation.
Bipartisan support and installation timeline
According to Shirley, the restoration was also made possible thanks to “a determined group of solution-oriented senators from both sides of the aisle,” supported by “a dedicated interagency group of government staff, under the leadership of the Architect of the Capitol.” Installation of the restored sculpture began in late August. “Kim and I are eagerly awaiting the moment when the motor is switched on and the components of the mobile begin to move slowly as Calder imagined them,” Shirley said.
On the possible political meaning of the operation, Shirley remains cautious: “Calder was not a political artist. But the symbolic power of the work — its extraordinary demonstration of balance and the unlikely harmony that can be achieved between different planes — is symbolically powerful.” In a building where bipartisan consensus is rare, the return of a work that can remain in balance thanks to the continuous movement of its parts takes on a significance that goes beyond conservation restoration.
FAQ
Why was the sculpture Mountains and Clouds dismantled for restoration?
An earthquake led to the dismantling of the clouds for a structural analysis, which revealed defects serious enough to make reinstallation dangerous.
Who funded and led the restoration of Calder’s sculpture in the Senate building?
Collectors Jon and Kim Shirley committed $10 million and ten years of work to restore the sculpture.
What new approaches were used to restore Mountains and Clouds?
The Calder Foundation discovered that the original mobile had not been made entirely as intended and used new technologies to align the restoration with Calder’s original intentions.
What is the meaning of the name of the Hart Senate Office Building?
The building is named after Senator Philip Hart, correcting a previous erroneous report that attributed it to Gary Hart.
{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”FAQPage”,”mainEntity”:[{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”Why was the sculpture Mountains and Clouds dismantled for restoration?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”An earthquake led to the dismantling of the clouds for a structural analysis, which revealed defects serious enough to make reinstallation dangerous.”}},{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”Who funded and led the restoration of Calder’s sculpture in the Senate building?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”Collectors Jon and Kim Shirley committed $10 million and ten years of work to restore the sculpture.”}},{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”What new approaches were used to restore Mountains and Clouds?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”The Calder Foundation discovered that the original mobile had not been made entirely as intended and used new technologies to align the restoration with Calder’s original intentions.”}},{“@type”:”Question”,”name”:”What is the meaning of the name of the Hart Senate Office Building?”,”acceptedAnswer”:{“@type”:”Answer”,”text”:”The building is named after Senator Philip Hart, correcting a previous erroneous report that attributed it to Gary Hart.”}}]}
Content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and with human editorial review.
Social media manager at The Cryptonomist
