Creativity Loves Company
June 2007
We first really met when we worked on a piece, ‘Trowel I,’ which had originally been made for a
site at Arnhem,” recalls Claes Oldenburg.
“It was in 1971 for the exhibition ‘Sonsbeek 71,’” interjects his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. “I was the editor of the catalogue, so that’s how we talked about the piece.”
“Of course, at that time we were not together,” Oldenburg continues. “But in 1976, that particular piece had been re-sited to the Kröller-Müller Museum in a very bad location and was in a state of deterioration. That’s when we got together on the piece.”
Seated at a long Donald Judd table in their minimally furnished brownstone on the edge of SoHo, the two sit so close to one another that at times their hands almost touch. Listening to the rapport as they continually take over from one another (often before either is finished), it is easy to understand the working process that has developed between them over the past three decades. As they discuss past projects of their signature giant sculptures that depict everyday objects, each brings perspectives still guided by their early training. Oldenburg, who was born in Sweden but raised in the U.S., is a visual artist and tends to approach the work in terms of its formal qualities, its visual characteristics and how it is constructed. Van Bruggen, an art historian and curator born and raised in the Netherlands, looks at the meaning inherent in each piece, placing the work in the context of its surroundings and in a larger art-historical framework.
Their experience re-siting the Kröller-Müller sculpture set a precedent for future collaborations. Oldenburg sketched and sculpted the model for “Trowel I” for example, but as he recalls, “Coosje had some very good ideas about where to place it because she had worked at the Kröller-Müller. The other thing was that she didn’t like the zinc-silver color, which she replaced with a sort of workman’s-blue color.”
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“Ago, Filo e Nod (Needle, Thread and Knot),” 2000, |
“Of course, at that time we were not together,” Oldenburg continues. “But in 1976, that particular piece had been re-sited to the Kröller-Müller Museum in a very bad location and was in a state of deterioration. That’s when we got together on the piece.”
Seated at a long Donald Judd table in their minimally furnished brownstone on the edge of SoHo, the two sit so close to one another that at times their hands almost touch. Listening to the rapport as they continually take over from one another (often before either is finished), it is easy to understand the working process that has developed between them over the past three decades. As they discuss past projects of their signature giant sculptures that depict everyday objects, each brings perspectives still guided by their early training. Oldenburg, who was born in Sweden but raised in the U.S., is a visual artist and tends to approach the work in terms of its formal qualities, its visual characteristics and how it is constructed. Van Bruggen, an art historian and curator born and raised in the Netherlands, looks at the meaning inherent in each piece, placing the work in the context of its surroundings and in a larger art-historical framework.
Their experience re-siting the Kröller-Müller sculpture set a precedent for future collaborations. Oldenburg sketched and sculpted the model for “Trowel I” for example, but as he recalls, “Coosje had some very good ideas about where to place it because she had worked at the Kröller-Müller. The other thing was that she didn’t like the zinc-silver color, which she replaced with a sort of workman’s-blue color.”
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