New York State Office of General Services Commissioner RoAnn Destito today announced the temporary removal of artist Alexander Calder’s abstract sculpture Triangles and Arches from the reflecting pool in front of the Grand Staircase on the south end of the Empire State Plaza. It is anticipated that removal will be complete by mid-June.

 

“Our responsibilities as stewards of the Empire State Plaza Art Collection include an ongoing commitment to provide generational treatment to works of art that require conservation,” Commissioner Destito said. “OGS is having the Calder sculpture, Triangles and Arches, deinstalled in preparation for conservation. Our goal with this sculpture and the other artworks we have conserved in recent years is to ensure that future generations will be able to view and enjoy this unique collection that belongs to the people of New York.”

 

Weighing approximately 8,000 pounds, Triangles and Arches consists of seven steel base plates projecting from seven piers rising out of the reflecting pool. Over time, the paint on the sculpture has deteriorated, and disassembly of the sculpture is needed to determine what conservation is required.

 

Calder is considered by many to be one of the most influential American sculptors of the 20^th century, and as many of his works reach their fifth and sixth decade of existence, several have required conservation, including the sculpture Gwenfritz, which was created in 1968 and, like Triangles and Arches, was designed to be surrounded by water. After conservation, Gwenfritz was returned in 2014 to its location outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

 

The Empire State Plaza Art Collection includes two of Calder’s works. Triangles and Arches, 1965, is an example of Calder’s stationary sculptures known as stabiles, and Four at Forty-Five Degrees, 1966, is one of Calder’s famous kinetic, or suspended moving sculptures, which are called mobiles.