In 1930 Alexander Calder twisted a wire or two and made a sculpture of a cow. He called it Vache, which is French for cow. Vache is also French for mean and nasty.

I saw this piece, which is small enough to fit in the proverbial bread box, at an exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. Calder is best known for his mobiles, which floated majestically through the exhibit. But it was the little wire cow that held my attention.

What fascinated me is the interplay between what is there and what is not there. What is there – tail, horns, eyes, four small teats made of tiny coils of wire – plays against what is missing – the white space where the top of the skull should be, the mass and bulk of flesh surrounding the suggestions of legs and neck sculpted by the wire.

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