Alexander Calder’s enormous fountain, Three Quintains (Hello Girls), is spinning and splashing again on LACMA’s campus, now anchoring the northeast corner of the new David Geffen Galleries. The colorful, mobile-like paddles are once more pushed by four water jets and the wind, restoring the watery stage Calder originally envisioned. The reinstallation lands just as the museum gears up to finally open the long‑awaited David Geffen Galleries later this month.
Curators and members of Calder’s family were on hand to see the piece spring back to life during reinstallation. LACMA senior curator Stephanie Barron noted how rare site-specific commissions once were, while Calder’s grandson Sandy Rower predicted the revived fountain would pull in both families and hardcore modern-art fans. “The concept of museums commissioning artists is now commonplace,” Barron said, and “Kids coming over here are gonna love it,” Rower added, both told the Los Angeles Times. The sculpture now sits beside the Geffen’s main café and the W.M. Keck Education Center, where staff expect it to function as a lively focal point for the campus.
How 'Hello Girls' Found Its Way Back
Calder’s three-part fountain was commissioned in 1964 for LACMA’s move to Wilshire and first greeted visitors when the museum opened in 1965. Over the decades, the work took a beating from calcium build-up and other environmental wear and tear, which led to relocations and on-again, off-again displays, as detailed by LACMA’s Unframed blog. For many Angelenos, its return reads less like a routine reinstall and more like a long-awaited homecoming for one of the museum’s earliest site-specific pieces.
Technical Fixes Let The Fountain Sing Again
Technicians reactivated the fountain’s four jets in March after months of conservation and behind-the-scenes infrastructure work, including a new filtration system meant to shield the sculpture from urban pollutants. The effort was part of the larger Geffen installation program and coincides with the new building’s nearly 724 million price tag, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Museum staff says the upgrades let Calder’s paddles draw energy from both water and wind, reviving the kinetic interplay that made the fountain such a standout in the first place.
Opening Timeline And What To Expect
The David Geffen Galleries are set to debut with a ribbon-cutting on April 19, followed by two weeks of priority access for members before the wider public rollout, the museum announced in February. The press release also highlights a NexGenLA free day for youth on May 3 and notes that members’ previews run from April 19 through May 3, as outlined by LACMA. With “Hello Girls” visible from the café and the plaza, the Geffen’s opening is expected to inject fresh energy into the museum’s circulation routes and outdoor gathering spots.
The fountain’s comeback is not just a technical success story. It doubles as a reminder of LACMA’s early role in commissioning modern art and of how a single work can tie a museum’s past to a very present-tense public space. For visitors, Three Quintains (Hello Girls) now functions as both a piece of modernist history and a playful, moving landmark on a newly remade campus.
