PEKIN
By Alexander Calder
1966, Painted steel and wire
Commissioned by Segerstrom in 1980 for the lobby of the Central Bank Tower, a family-owned office building that has since been sold, Pekin by Alexander Calder is a whimsical painted-steel standing mobile with Calder’s signature hanging elements supported by a stable spine.
One folded black triangle rises from the floor into a white circle with an off-center hole that rotates around the tip of the tower. A large ring is countered by six red circles of varying sizes connected to series of curved wires. The sculpture derives balance from unequal portions. Nothing is symmetrical, yet all the elements work together in rhythmic unity.

From miniature to monumental, Calder’s works are characteristically direct, spare, buoyant, colorful, and finely crafted. Calder also made ingenious, and frequently witty use of natural and manmade materials, including wire, sheet metal, wood, and bronze. Calder’s works, many of them large-scale outdoor sculptures, have been placed in virtually every major city of the Western world.

PEKIN PHOTO GALLERY