On gun control, health care and immigration, Christopher S. Murphy has gained ground by building coalitions. On the project to refabricate and rehang a portion of Alexander Calder’s “Mountains and Clouds” sculpture in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, he’s tilting at windmills on his own.
“I might be a bit of a Don Quixote on this,” the Connecticut Democrat quipped in an interview this week about a project nearly 10 years in the making, with no clear end in sight and few vocal supporters on the Hill. “It just seems sad to me that everybody here is so accepting that we have half a piece of art. You’d never chop off half a painting and keep the other half up.
” Since Calder’s “clouds” were removed in 2014 for a safety study, Murphy has periodically lodged his frustrations with the massive, half-complete art installation that’s made its home in Hart since the 1980s. Last week, at a Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations budget hearing with acting Architect of the Capitol Joseph DiPietro, Murphy again asked for a status update. “Is there any chance that before I leave the Senate, or at least before I die, we can get the clouds back up there?” the senator asked.
The answer? Maybe. But the design specifications and sheer size of the Calder piece make it a challenging task. DiPietro didn’t provide a timeline at the hearing, but a spokesperson for the project, who is working with donors and the Calder Foundation, said in an email that the.