Claes Oldenburg's art leads us to pay attention to the little things that we often overlook. By taking ordinary objects such as a three-way plug or a spoon and putting them through changes of scale and materials, he discovers formal connections between dissimilar items. For example, he likens his and his wife Coosje van Bruggen's Garden sculpture, Spoonbridge and Cherry (1985-1988), to both an ocean liner and an earring. In his vividly imaginative notes and drawings, objects become elastic-stretching, growing, and curving as if alive. Oldenburg and van Bruggen have been artistic partners since the early 1980s, creating numerous monumental public sculptures. While he began working with the form of the spoon as early as 1967, it was she who added the cherry. Whether indoors or out, their work surprises, amuses, and excites a viewer's imagination.
 
 

Spoonbridge and Cherry 1985-1988
aluminum, stainless steel, paint

Lippincott, Inc., North Haven Connecticut subcontractors,
spoon: Merrifield-Roberts, Inc., Bristol, Rhode Island
cherry: Paul E. Luke, Inc., East Boothbay, Maine

commissioned by Walker Art Center, 1985
(gift of Frederick R. Weisman in honor of his parents, William and Mary Weisman 88.385)