The sculpture was commissioned by the Advisory Committee for the stairwell of the museum when the new building opened in 1939.[2] Fabricated in Roxbury, Connecticut, the painted steel wire and sheet aluminum sculpture is 8' 6" (260 cm) x 9' 6" (290 cm) in diameter. The sculpture suggests the movement of underwater life.[3]
Calder became a leading exponent of kinetic art, combining his engineering training with his studies of art in New York and Paris. According to a review in the New York Sun, "There, he became enthralled with the biomorphicsurrealismofJoan Miró as well as the powerful choreographyofmodern dance pioneer Martha Graham."[4] After experimenting with motorized sculptures, Calder began creating works that moved and floated when touched or exposed to air currents. Calder composed motion with works like Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, "harnessing the performative potential of the mechanical sciences."[4]
^Lipman, Jean; Franc, Helen Margaret (1976). Bright stars: American painting and sculpture since 1776. Dutton, ISBN978-0-525-07147-1
^Morgan, Ann Lee (2007). The Oxford dictionary of American art and artists, p. 73. Oxford University Press US, ISBN978-0-19-512878-9
^Moyle, Peter B.; Moyle, Marilyn A. (1992). Fish imagery in art 28: Calder's Lobster Trap and Fish Tail. Environmental Biology of Fishes, Volume 35, Number 2, 204 doi:10.1007/BF00002194
