MINNEAPOLIS SCULPTURE GARDEN CLAES OLDENBURG POSTER

In the 1980s, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis commissioned Claes Oldenburg and his wife Coosie van Bruggen to create a fountain sculpture.  They created Spoon Bridge with Cherry by digging out a pond and placing a gigantic spoon across the pond with a cherry which sprays water out of its stem.  The water then flows over the cherry into the spoon and back into the lake. Oldenburg especially likes it when it snows because it looks like the spoon and cherry are covered with ice cream.

This poster celebrates the dedication of this sculpture in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in September 1988.

Oldenburg was born in Sweden in 1930 and grew up in Chicago.  After moving to New York City in the mid-1950s, he developed a sculpture style in which he took familiar objects and gave them a different scale, shape and texture, with the result that they took on a new meaning. 

In the 1960s he created soft sculptures with canvas and vinyl, making cartoon versions of everyday objects such as Two Hamburgers and Toilet.  Continuing his fascination with ordinary items as sculpture, he took small objects and made them gigantic, thereby stripping them of their utility, as illustrated by this wonderful sculpture in Minneapolis. His work, often whimsical and humorous, like this Minneapolis spoon, has ranged from drawings and paintings to public sculptures, both mini and monumental. 

In 1977 he married artist Coosje van Bruggen (1942 – 2009), who collaborated with him on many of his projects. 

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