Artists and craftsmen have made whirligigs—playful kinetic sculptures fastened to outdoor posts—for centuries, often using leftover scraps of wood. The wind easily would have caught the paddle arms of the figure in this example, resulting in a fast whipping motion. This piece was once in the collection of Leo Rabkin, an abstract painter who recognized the parallels between the pared-down forms of folk art and the ideas of the abstract painters he worked alongside at mid-century.