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Charlotte’s Firebird is Niki de Saint Phalle’s Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche—“The Grand Firebird on the Arch.” Completed in 1991 and unveiled outside the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art on November 3, 2009, the mirrored sculpture draws on the Slavic fairy tale The Firebird. The Bechtler interprets it as a symbol of beauty, resilience in the face of adversity, and liberation.
What Charlotte’s Firebird symbolizes
The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art links Saint Phalle’s sculpture to the Slavic fairy tale The Firebird, whose magical bird represents extraordinary beauty and transformative power. On that basis, the museum identifies three central meanings for Charlotte’s Firebird:
- Beauty: the bird’s reflective, jewel-like surface makes beauty its most immediate visual quality.
- Resilience in the face of adversity: the firebird’s mythical identity suggests endurance and renewal despite hardship.
- Liberation: the soaring bird evokes freedom and release from constraint.
These meanings are the museum’s interpretation of the work’s fairy-tale inspiration. They should not be presented as a surviving first-person statement by Saint Phalle.
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History and provenance
Created in 1991
Saint Phalle completed Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche in 1991. The Bechtler says the work was exhibited in Europe and the United States before it came to Charlotte.
Purchased for the Bechtler
Museum patron Andreas Bechtler purchased the sculpture specifically for placement in front of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. It therefore arrived as a planned public-facing landmark rather than a later temporary decoration.
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Unveiled in 2009
The sculpture was unveiled on November 3, 2009, outside the museum. A contemporaneous release from the Niki Charitable Art Foundation called it “Charlotte’s newest work of privately-owned public art” and described it as a permanent fixture in the museum’s collection.
How the sculpture is made
The museum describes the construction as mirror mosaic over polyester on a steel armature. The foundation’s unveiling account emphasizes the bird-like form covered in mirrored and colored glass. Thousands of individual reflective pieces turn the surface into a changing field of light as viewers and daylight move around it.
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Size and visual character
| Detail | Published description |
|---|---|
| Artist | Niki de Saint Phalle |
| Full title | Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche |
| Completion | 1991 |
| Height | The Bechtler describes it as over 17 feet tall; the Niki Charitable Art Foundation gives 17 feet 5 inches. |
| Weight | 1,433 pounds, according to the Bechtler. |
| Surface | 7,500-piece mirror mosaic, according to the Bechtler. |
| Structure | Mirror mosaic over polyester on a steel armature. |
The two height figures come from different official descriptions. The more precise 17-foot-5-inch measurement should not be treated as a correction to the museum’s rounded “over 17 feet” wording; both descriptions refer to the same sculpture.
Why it fits Saint Phalle’s artistic language
The Bechtler characterizes Saint Phalle’s practice as interdisciplinary, socially activist, playful, subversive, vibrant, feminist, fantastical and monumental. The Firebird brings those qualities together in a public setting: its monumental scale commands the plaza, its brilliant mosaic is playful and fantastical, and its mythic subject carries an idea of liberation. Those are useful ways to understand the work’s place in her larger practice, while the specific symbolic triad—beauty, resilience and liberation—comes from the museum’s interpretation of this sculpture.
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Where to see Charlotte’s Firebird
The sculpture stands on the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s welcome plaza at the corner of Levine Avenue of the Arts and South Tryon Street in Uptown Charlotte. The museum’s street address is 420 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.
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The museum’s visitor information currently lists free admission on Wednesdays from 5 to 9 p.m., along with its regular admission prices. Hours, prices and free-admission policies can change, so confirm the current visitor information before travelling.
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Firebird facts at a glance
- Title: Le grand oiseau de feu sur l’arche (The Grand Firebird on the Arch).
- Artist: Niki de Saint Phalle.
- Completed: 1991.
- Installed and unveiled in Charlotte: 2009; unveiling held November 3.
- Inspiration: the Slavic fairy tale The Firebird.
- Museum-associated meanings: beauty, resilience in the face of adversity and liberation.
- Location: Bechtler Museum welcome plaza, 420 South Tryon Street, at Levine Avenue of the Arts and South Tryon Street.
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