More than a decade after being removed for a safety study, Alexander Calder’s “Mountains and Clouds” sculpture could be restored to its full glory — clouds and all.
Restoration is “underway and is on track to be completed later this year, finally fully realizing the acclaimed and influential American artist’s original vision for the work,” according to a statement from Alexander S.C. Rower, who is the president of the Calder Foundation and grandson of the sculptor.
Installed in the Hart Senate Office Building in 1986, the artwork’s black aluminum “clouds” eventually stopped turning, and the mobile was stationary until 2014, when it was lowered for structural analysis.
It’s been all mountains and no clouds ever since. Even without the four dangling pieces overhead, which weighed a cumulative 4,300 pounds, the “stabile” portion of the sculpture has remained a fixture in the Hart atrium, rising 51 feet into triangular peaks.
A spokesperson for the Architect of the Capitol said this week they “have no information update at this time” when asked about the target restoration date of late 2026 shared by the Calder Foundation.
The clouds were never able to move as Calder intended because of technical limitations at the time, according to the foundation. After they were removed, they were deemed unsafe, according to the Architect of the Capitol’s website.
“The Architect of the Capitol, in consultation with the Calder Foundation, has determined that the best course of action is to refabricate the clouds to the artist’s original intent,” the AOC concluded after the safety study.
The long absence of the clouds has caught the attention of some lawmakers, earning a mention at a Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations hearing in May 2024.
“Is there any chance that before I leave the Senate, or at least before I die, we can get the clouds back up there?” Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., asked then-acting Architect of the Capitol Joseph DiPietro.
Often working out of a studio in Murphy’s home state of Connecticut, Calder was known for his large public sculptures and his use of mobiles. His work features prominently at the National Gallery of Art, as well as other D.C. museums.
Asked to submit a design to fill Hart’s nine-story atrium when construction began on the building in the 1970s, Calder proposed “mountains” that would tower over several stories, with the “clouds” rotating in the air above powered by a motor.
Calder died the day after he presented his model to the Architect of the Capitol on Nov. 10, 1976. Public funds were cut for the project in 1979, and it looked like the whole thing might be scrapped. It was only after a fundraising campaign, led by former New Jersey Sen. Nicholas F. Brady, that the full-size sculpture was created and assembled. According to the AOC’s website, it cost $650,000 and is an outlier for Calder because the artist didn’t oversee its final stages.
The restoration will be funded by private philanthropy, the Calder Foundation said.
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