26W21. The unbearable lightness of Calder’s mobiles

When you’re not as rich as you’d like and not as powerful as you’d think, you plaster gold trinkets all over your Oval Office. When you’re as rich as millions of people combined and as powerful as most democratically elected heads of state, you plaster your munificence all over public amenities. Rockefeller did it, Carnegie did it, even Bernard Arnault did it. You can barely recognize LV’s monogram on top of its entrance, but make no mistake, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is testament to Arnault’s grip over France’s public affairs.Much to the chagrin of our public museums, which can’t afford to overbid mere millionaires and keep national treasures from leaving the country, the Fondation Louis Vuitton has pockets deep enough to gather works from all over the world and organize lavish monographic exhibitions. “Rêver en équilibre” (“dreaming in equilibrium”) brings nearly 300 works from Alexander Calder under the same roof. It’d be impressive if they’d simply tossed them haphazardly into a…