stabile

stabile, type of stationary abstract sculpture, developed by the 20th-century American artist Alexander Calder and usually characterized by simple forms executed in sheet metal; the term, coined in reference to Calder’s work by Jean Arp in 1931 (compare mobile), was later applied to similar works by other artists.

The increasing monumentality of Calder’s stabiles contributed significantly to a renaissance in public art during the latter half of the century. Composed of flat curvilinear shapes of metal welded or rivetted together and painted usually red or black, these playful, airy works are equally suited to the glass and steel confines of contemporary buildings and the free space of parks and plazas. Outstanding examples include “Flamingo” (Chicago; 1974), “Teodelapio” (Spoleto, Italy; 1962), and “El Sol Rojo” (Mexico City; 1968).

The Canadian sculptor Robert Murray (1936– ) is notable among other artists working in the monumental stabile form; his lofty curved and folded aluminum sheets, while usually more geometric and less “penetrable” than the stabiles of Calder, nonetheless share the latter’s paradoxical blend of lightness and substantiality, motion and stasis.