Alexander Calder, 1898-1976
Eagle, 1971 painted steel
Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

The work is a superb monumental outdoor sculpture created in the last decade [1966-76] of Calder's life- a period considered to be the apex of the artist's career. The year that Calder produced Eagle, a 39 foot tall biomorphic steel structure, he was awarded the gold medal for sculpture by the american academy of arts and letters and the National Institute od Arts and Letters Marcel Duchamp suggested calling Calder's new motorized sculpture "mobiles," a pun in French referring to both motion and motive. This sensible notion was followed with the word "stabile" for the non-moving sculpture. The sculpture has been on loan to the city of Philadelphia. The Seattle Art Museum placed the work in front of the Seattle Asian Art Museum as an interim location for the sculpture until it can be installed in the museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, which was scheduled to open in 2003. Eagle was purchased with a donation from Jon and Mary Shirley to the museum's acquisition fund. Eagle has been previously owned by the Perls Galleries in New York, Fort Worth National Bank, Texas American Bancshares, Team Bank, Banc One, Loutex Fort Worth L.P. and anonymous collectors.

Isamu Noguchi 1904-88
Black Sun, 1969 granite
Collection of the Seattle Art Museum

A student of Gutzon Borglum, Noguchi won Guggenheim fellowships (1927 and 1928) permitting him to study in Paris under Brancusi. Although he has created much independent sculpture and numerous striking stage settings for the Martha Graham dance company, he is best known for his abstract sculptures designed as adjuncts to architecture. An example of this highly integrated environmental work is his massive red cube designed for the Marine Midland Bank Building, New York City. Noguchi has created many playgrounds and stone sculpture gardens, he designed a notable garden in Mexico City and for UNESCO in Paris (1958). His entrance for the new Museum of Modern Art, Toyko was completed in 1969. He is the author of A Sculptor's World (1969)