This statue has had a bird’s-eye view of over half a century of Stanford GSB history.
written by AMARA HOLSTEIN
Front Photo by Elena Zhukova | Back Photo from GSB Archives
“See you at the birds.” Since it was installed in 1966, The Flame Birds has been a focal point, meeting place, and Stanford GSB icon. Antiwar protesters hung signs on it. A prankster in 1977 dressed the sculpture as “The Flaming Wazoo” — a play on its French name, Les Oiseaux Flammes. Several “birds” wearing hula skirts made a starring appearance in the 1988 student show. And on September 11, 2001, students and faculty held vigil around the birds as a place of shared solace.
The birds were hatched by François Stahly, a German-French sculptor celebrated for his expressionist, organic forms, who made a stop at Stanford as an artist-in-residence in 1964-65. His work, described as “somewhere between Constantin Brancusi and Hans Arp,” caught the eye of assistant dean William L. Lowe, MBA ’39, and his wife, Margaret. They gifted The Flame Birds and another sculpture, The Unicorn (La Licorne), to the university. The unicorn still graces the entrance to the Stanford Faculty Club, and the birds were placed in an unmissable spot in the GSB’s main courtyard.
Photo by Elena ZhukovaGSB ArchivePhoto by Elena ZhukovaGSB Archive
There the birds perched, until it was announced in 2007 that the GSB was building a new complex. Dean Robert Joss had to reassure anxious alumni about the artwork’s fate. “I don’t know yet where the sculpture will land, but it will be in a place specially thought out,” he said.
Today, the birds usher visitors into the southwest entrance of the Knight Management Center, where they cluster under a sun-dappled canopy of trees, poised for flight.
