"The fish is a perfect form."
—Frank GehryFamed for his uniquely dynamic and abstract monumental buildings breaking from classical architectural forms, Frank Gehry’s aesthetic vocabulary often explores fragmentation, dynamism and movement within architecture and design. In the fish, Gehry saw an opportunity to move away from the modernist stagnation of the stark box to a more active, undulating architecture. Infused with movement, seemingly disparate pieces come together to form a whole figure, such as the scales of a fish creating an arching and energetic creature. While the fish is not exactly linked to the mythos of the live carp his grandmother bought once a week while Gehry was growing up in Toronto to make gefilte fish, the figure takes on a greater historicism as a way of grounding his abstract designs in a recognizable form.i
Fish sculpture by Frank Gehry at Port Olympic marina. Barcelona seafront. Catalonia, Spain. Image: Nick Hawkes / Alamy Stock Photo
The fish lamps were not Gehry’s first foray into exploring the fish form, having utilized the concept in many of his architectural designs, both realized and unrealized. These fluid and curvilinear shapes inspired by the fish’s form grant visual harmony to the apparent unpredictability and fragmentation of his iconic buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In one such attempt to incorporate the actual fish figure into his project, Gehry was paired on a project by the Architectural League of New York with sculptor Richard Serra, working to develop a bridge connecting the Chrysler Building and World Trade Center in which he sketched a monumental fish leaping from the water.iii For Gehry’s first major retrospective at the Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis in 1986, director Martin Friedman commissioned as its center piece a large-scale outdoor fish sculpture, which is now on long-term loan to the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota. As with his friend Claes Oldenburg, Gehry brings an easily recognized form such as the carp to a monumental scale, leading the viewer to take another glance and reconsider the figure. Other large-scale sculptural iterations of the fish include a 40-foot wood fish sculpture for Castello di Rivoli in 1985; a two-story, chain-link mesh and copper jumping fish structure for a restaurant in Kobe, Japan built between 1986 and 1988; and a monumental commission for the 1992 Olympic Pavilion in Barcelona.
iFrank Gehry: Fish Lamps, Gagosian, June 2, 2021, online ii Ibid. iii Ibid.
Provenance
New City Editions, Los Angeles Metro Pictures, New York Joyce Eliason, Los Angeles Thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited
New York, Metro Pictures, Frank Gehry: Fish and Snake Lamps, November 27–December 22, 1984
formica, glass, wood, steel and electrical lighting, in 2 parts fish 11 x 28 x 9 in. (27.9 x 71.1 x 22.9 cm) base 54 1/2 x 19 x 12 in. (138.4 x 48.3 x 30.5 cm) Executed in 1984.