THE FIREBIRD
Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche (The Grand Firebird on the arch)
Niki de Saint Phalle
From the outset of her career in the late 1950s, Niki de Saint Phalle’s work defied easy categorization. She employed a wide range of materials and techniques, and her practice is best characterized by an interdisciplinary, socially activist, and playfully subversive approach to artmaking. From the mid-1960s onwards, Saint Phalle’s creative output became increasingly vibrant, feminist, fantastical, and monumental. Le grande oiseau de feu sur l’arche (1991)—known locally as The Firebird—is emblematic of such work. Standing over 17 feet tall and covered with thousands of mirrored tiles, the inspiration for the radiant sculpture is the Slavic fairytale of the same name, in which the magical firebird symbolizes beauty, resilience in the face of adversity, and liberation. Saint Phalle’s towering Firebird, with its wings joyfully outspread, greets visitors to the Bechtler Museum at the corner of Levine Avenue of the Arts and South Tryon Street. Installed in 2009, it has become a beloved public landmark of Uptown Charlotte.
Niki de Saint Phalle, Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche (The Grand Firebird on the arch), 1991, Mirror mosaic over polyester on steel armature. ©2026 Niki Charitable Art Foundation. All Rights Reserved / ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris. Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 2007.2069.
ATRIUM
Wall Drawing #995: Color Geometric Form (Outline)
Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing #995: Color Geometric Form (Outline) (2001) is prominently displayed in the museum’s soaring multi-story foyer and is visible from the street.
LeWitt (1928–2007) was a pioneering Minimalist artist and a founder of the Conceptual art movement. In the late 1960s he expanded the definition of what art could be with his radical assertion that the idea is the most important part of a work, thus privileging the concept over its physical form. Begun in 1968, LeWitt’s wall drawings exemplify this approach to artmaking: for these works, he provided a set of instructions or diagrams to draftspeople who execute the piece. LeWitt likened his role to that of a composer who creates a score that can be performed by others for generations to come.
Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #995, 2001, © 2025 Courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Gary O'Brien
Painted directly on the museum’s large atrium wall, Wall Drawing #995 took a team of eight people eleven days to complete. To create the geometric shapes that comprise the composition, LeWitt used isometric projection—a method of depicting three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface. Painted in primary and secondary hues, the bright bars appear to pop out from the background, simultaneously producing a dynamic effect while demonstrating LeWitt’s focus on essential colors and forms. Wall Drawing #995 was the first work installed in the museum. It is on long-term loan courtesy of the Estate of Sol LeWitt.
PLAZA GALLERY
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Chakaia Booker (American, b. 1953), Added Substance, 2008, Rubber tires and stainless steel. Courtesy of the artist and David Nolan Gallery, New York.
Weighted Balance
Chakaia Booker
Chakaia Booker has transformed discarded rubber tires into works of striking formal and conceptual complexity for over forty years. In sculptures such as Added Substance, Booker intricately cuts, layers, and weaves the everyday object, reshaping an emblem of mass production into dynamic compositions that evoke resilience and regeneration. The monumental form of Added Substance conveys both strength and movement, and the tactile surface of the work—simultaneously rough and refined—references African textile traditions, modernist assemblage, and the physicality of labor.
Booker’s engagement with rubber tires resonates with Charlotte’s own history of automotive culture and manufacturing. Her work invites reflection on cycles of use, sustainability, and mobility, linking global concerns with local histories of production and progress.
Chakaia Booker (American, b. 1953), Pause, 2023, Tapestry, Edition 3.. Courtesy of the artist and David Nolan Gallery, New York.
Pause
Chakaia Booker
Booker’s tapestry Pause extends the sculptural practice for which she is best known into the realm of textiles. The composition’s repeated circular forms and interlocking patterns recall the rhythmic energy of her cut and assembled sculptures made of rubber tires, while its woven surface evokes the artist’s long-standing engagement with texture and transformation. Inspired by Booker’s paper collages and prints, Pause merges gestural abstraction with material precision. Its bold contrasts and concentric forms create a visual cadence that suggests movement, adaptation, and renewal.
Pause and Added Substance are presented in conjunction with the exhibition Chakaia Booker: Weighted Balance, on view in the museum’s third floor gallery.
LIVING ROOM
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Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976), Woven by Pinton Frères, Aubusson, France, Glacier with Colored Petals, 1971, Edition 1 of 6, Aubusson wool, cotton, and silk. © 2026 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 2007.2065
Glacier with Colored Petals, 1971
Alexander Calder
In Glacier with Colored Petals, Alexander Calder translates his signature vocabulary of bold shapes and vibrant hues into woven form. The tapestry reflects Calder’s lifelong interest in movement and abstraction—here captured in a frozen yet dynamic interplay of organic contours. Calder began collaborating with the renowned Aubusson tapestry workshops in the 1960s, working especially with Pinton Frères. Each square yard of Glacier with Colored Petals took about a month to weave, using wool dyed to Calder’s exact color specifications. Though static, the composition hums with the energy and rhythm found throughout the artist’s mobiles, sculptures, and works on paper, demonstrating his playful approach to form and color across mediums.
ATRIUM STAIRS
Colours et étincelles sonores
Gregorio Vardenega
Color and Sound Sparks will play every day at 11:00 AM and 2:30 PM. Learn more about the sculpture and see it running by viewing the video.
Gregorio Vardenega, Colours et étincelles sonores, 1963-70, metal, plexiglass, steel, colored lights, and mirror. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. 2003.0070. Video by SmART Lab Production.