{"id":257654,"date":"2026-04-08T14:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/257654\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:20:15","slug":"alexander-calder-fountain-is-back-at-lacmas-david-geffen-galleries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/257654\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Calder fountain is back at LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s old is new again as sculptor Alexander Calder\u2019s monumental \u201cThree Quintains (Hello Girls)\u201d is installed to anchor the northeast corner of Los Angeles County Museum of Art\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries. The four water jets that propel the colorful, whimsical sculpture were turned back on in March more than 60 years after the piece was first commissioned for the museum\u2019s original William Pereira\u2013designed campus, which opened in 1965. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of museums commissioning artists is now commonplace. It wasn\u2019t commonplace then,\u201d said LACMA\u2019s senior curator and modern art department head, Stephanie Barron, as she watched the fountain\u2019s bright yellow, red and blue mobile-like paddles dance and twist in the wind and water, alongside Sandy Rower, Calder\u2019s grandson and head of his foundation.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Sandy Rower, sculptor Alexander Calder\u2019s grandson and the head of the Calder Foundation, stands beside his grandfather\u2019s 1964 fountain, \u201cThree Quintains (Hello Girls),\u201d which was just installed at Los Angeles County Museum of Art\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries. <\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Not only was the sculpture, fondly referred to as \u201cHello Girls,\u201d one of the museum\u2019s earliest prized attractions, Calder also designed a poster commemorating the museum\u2019s opening, causing his imprint to be baked into the DNA of the place, noted LACMA\u2019s director and chief executive, Michael Govan.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why discussions about where \u201cHello Girls\u201d would land began very early in the process of designing the new building, said Rower, adding that he even addressed the matter with architect Peter Zumthor.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, it was across Wilshire by the theater,\u201d Rower said. \u201cAnd then it really became clear that this is the site related to all the activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activity in question will come from the sculpture being directly alongside the building\u2019s main cafe<\/a>, with outdoor tables flanking the fountain\u2019s edge, and just a stone\u2019s throw from the W.M. Keck Education Center, which will be overrun by excitable children who will get a big kick out of the fountain\u2019s inviting whirl and swirl.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids coming over here are gonna love it,\u201d Rower said. \u201cSo are people that have been obsessing on modern art and modernism all their lives \u2014 they\u2019re gonna be confounded by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Water <\/p>\n

The mobile-like paddles on Alexander Calder\u2019s 1964 fountain, \u201cThree Quintains (Hello Girls),\u201d are propelled by the force of water from four jets, as well as the wind.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Barron said getting the placement of the sculpture just right was of utmost importance to the museum and the Calder Foundation. Over the years the installation has encountered a variety of difficulties that kept it from realizing its true spirit and form. It was originally situated in pools that people could walk through, but calcium deposits from the water, its proximity to the La Brea Tar Pits and other environmental factors resulted in the sculpture not being \u201chappy,\u201d Barron explained. In the 1980s it was stranded on a hillside in the sculpture garden and later sent for display at Pasadena\u2019s Art Center College of Design.<\/p>\n

Anticipation is high with this latest installation, which features a technically advanced filtration system to deal with the perils of an outdoor urban environment, and once again finds the sculpture as its creator intended: at LACMA, surrounded by water.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalder is perennial,\u201d Rower said. \u201cA lot of people who arrive here not knowing anything about this artist will be excited that there isn\u2019t a bronze here or something static. There\u2019s activity, there\u2019s color, there\u2019s motion, there\u2019s light, there\u2019s food, there\u2019s a ramp. You can go all the way around it, which is also really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

\u201cThree Quintains (Hello Girls)\u201d is installed by the cafe at Los Angeles County Museum of Art\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries. The location was chosen because of all the activity that is anticipated in the area.<\/p>\n

(Etienne Laurent \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

The ability to observe the piece from a 360-degree vantage point allows viewers to see the \u201cballetic nature of the wind and the water,\u201d said Barron, adding that she has enjoyed watching people\u2019s reactions to the installation as it\u2019s gone up. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who haven\u2019t been here for a long time say, \u2018Oh my God, it\u2019s back. It\u2019s my favorite piece. It looks so much better. It looks different.\u2019 And people who\u2019ve never seen it say, \u2018Oh, wow. This just makes me happy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Rower nodded, smiling as the wind pushed a large blue paddle counterclockwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think your grandfather probably would be really happy with that,\u201d Barron said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s old is new again as sculptor Alexander Calder\u2019s monumental \u201cThree Quintains (Hello Girls)\u201d is installed to anchor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2700,113892,28487,113894,113895,9959,48,52,51,20633,47,50,49,6607,43215,592,113890,8673,113893,113891,3016],"class_list":{"0":"post-257654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-activity","9":"tag-calder","10":"tag-david-geffen-galleries","11":"tag-fountain","12":"tag-hello-girls","13":"tag-installation","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-lacma","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-museum","22":"tag-new-life","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-sandy-rower","25":"tag-sculpture","26":"tag-stephanie-barron","27":"tag-water-jet","28":"tag-wind"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}