Claes Oldenburg + Coosje van Bruggen: Thinking Big
For over three decades, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen made the everyday unfamiliar by transforming common, often domestic, objects — a clothespin, a flashlight, an ice cream cone, a box of matches — into giant urban sculptures. Between 1976 and 2009, the husband-and-wife team created more than 40 “Large-Scale Projects” in cities around the world. Playful and — despite their inanimate subject matter — profoundly human, their projects collapse the boundary between public and private and radically reinvent the tradition of the monument.
This presentation of works from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection — part of Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10 — features models for four of their most iconic projects, including San Francisco’s own beloved Cupid’s Span (2002). It also includes related sculptures by the artists from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and several works by Oldenburg from the early 1970s that anticipate features of their Large-Scale Projects.
Exhibition Preview
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Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van BruggenUprooted Birdhouse -
Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van BruggenSculpture in the Form of a Match Cover -
Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van BruggenGeometric Apple Core -
Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van BruggenInverted Collar and Tie — Third Version -
Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van BruggenTorn Notebook Study #1
Visionary support for Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10 is provided by Fisher Art Foundation.
Lead support is provided by Penny S. and James G. Coulter and Mimi and Peter Haas Fund.
Presenting support is provided by Dana and Bob Emery.
Major support is provided by Katie Hall and Tom Knutsen.
Significant support is provided by Concepción S. and Irwin Federman, Alexandria and Kevin Marchetti, and Deborah and Kenneth Novack.
Meaningful support is provided by Alka and Ravin Agrawal, Sabrina Buell and Yves Béhar, Nancy and Alan Schatzberg, and Susan Swig.
Header image: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cupid’s Span, 2002; gift of Doris and Donald Fisher to the city of San Francisco; © The Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen Estate; photo: © Henrik Kam