Wind Machine with Gabriel, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Louis Armstrong
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@ Smithsonian American Art Museum
Eleanor Roosevelt Louis Armstrong
Description
James Leonard created this wind machine in 1984 to commemorate Eleanor Roosevelt’s hundredth birthday. She is seated because, as Leonard explains, “she is the lady of honor, and the other two guys are playing for her.” The “other two guys” are Leonard’s fantasy duet of Louis Armstrong and the angel Gabriel. When the machine is activated, Roosevelt waves her arms, Gabriel flaps his wings and taps his foot, and Armstrong rocks back and forth. (Lynda Hartigan, Made with Passion, 1990)
Physical Object
Cut, Soldered And Patinated Copper On Wood Base, Cut And Soldered Copper Wire And Sheet With Localized Liver Of Sulphur (Potassium Sulfide) Patination
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
