Verbal Description Transcript:

Toile d’Araignée dates from 1965. It’s made of sheet metal, rod, wire, and paint. It measures about 10 feet high by 10 feet wide. This abstract mobile is hung high above our heads by a single wire. It’s composed of a series of slender metal rods: smaller rods branch off larger ones, creating a delicate network. Attached to the ends of the rods are pieces of flat metal – about 2 dozen pieces in all. The elements are in the shape of irregular triangles or polygons with rounded corners. The sculpture is all one pale color – a grayish white. The different elements of the sculpture are loosely joined together with little wire rings. This means the parts can move independently: the larger metal rods can swing from side to side and the smaller rods and wires that branch off them can also swivel. In turn, this causes the flat metal pieces to move and twist: as the light catches them from different angles, they sometimes appear shiny white and sometimes shadowed.