Describe the characteristics of the Ráfaga de nieve in this artwork's Artworks.
Year: 1955
The version at the Central University of Venezuela, titled in Spanish, is 320 cm × 250 cm.The Venezuelan architect and designer Carlos Raúl Villanueva began designing the University City of Caracas campus in the 1940s, beginning construction in the 1950s in a time of prevailing Modernism in Latin America. Villanueva hired many artists from around the world to contribute works to the campus, including Calder, who contributed four pieces; Ráfaga de nieve, a monumental acoustic sculpture called the Floating Clouds, and two stabiles.The mobile was first restored in 1983, and restored again in 2013; its location allows strong air currents to damage it over time while also making it difficult to clean. Restoration involved consultation with the Calder Foundation, and each piece was documented and labeled before it was dismantled and removed. A geometric analysis of the mobile suggested that in some formations it shows Fibonacci patterns in its layout.
Carlos Raúl Villanueva University City of Caracas Modernism Fibonacci patterns mobile Floating Clouds stabiles Central University of Venezuela