Maurice Lemieux

Calcite, by Maurice Lemieux

Calcite, 1981-4

Stainless steel
Height 4,2 m × length 5 m × width 4 m

Location: De la Savane metro station, ticket hall

Calcite, in context

 Calcite, seen from above
This large sculpture, suspended from the wall above the ticket volumes, scatters light off of its polished spikes: sunlight from a light shaft by day, coloured light from track lamps by night. Designed in concert with the station's architects, it reflects its creator's interest in mineralogy.

"My father had decided from the beginning to call his work Calcite. Based on his knowledge of minerals, and on the fact that there had once been a prairie in the area [as the station's name suggests], he believed that type of semi-precious stone might be found there. Once they began diggng the station, they did, in fact, find a vein of calcite! The sculpture's shape is based on the mineral's."
-Francine Lemieux
(Info STM, Les artistes du métro de Montréal: Maurice Lemieux, Métro, 21 February 2005, p. 9)

Calcite, model
Model		 Calcite, under construction
Under construction

Images calcite-maquette.jpg and calcite-fabrication.jpg courtesy the Lemieux family.