Claes Oldenburg - "Plantoir 2001"

4th Encounter

Today, 16th of March of 2009 at 3pm I am seated in the same bench for what should be my last encounter in this odyssey.
Claes Oldenburg and Van Bruggen are not unknown names for me anymore they now make part of my universe of familiar artists.
I can see at this exact moment a shadow of almost twice the size of the Plantoir. What an impressive view! Once again, I feel so small!
This month or so I had between encounters made aware of a coincidence. In some sense there is a relation between my approach to Plantoir and Claes Oldenburg’s first public reception. At the beginning of his career Oldenburg’s work was not appreciated, it is even said that it elicited public ridicule. It took him (and others) some time to enlarge the definition of art into something where is pieces could fit. He had to challenge traditional assumptions. The same ones I kept in my head for long time and that didn’t allow me to smile and simply enjoy his work. Against what most people believe, I don’t think Oldenburg’s work change the way we perceive our everyday world I do believe it has a fundamental place on bringing fun, humor into the art those days.
Just as a curiosity, Plantoir was made as a feminine counterpart of “Trowel” (see photo)

Claes Oldenburg - "Plantoir 2001"

3rd Encounter

One more time… One more encounter with this intriguing giant object/sculpture. I ask myself why I’ve decided to write about something I couldn’t immediately understand. Wouldn’t it be easier to write about a piece I like, something that touched my senses right away? Maybe this was exactly the point, forcing myself to develop a critical approach to an immediately indecipherable piece of art. By other hand I have to confess that from the first moment, for some unknown reason, it caught my attention.
For all this time I was possibly trapped in that old notion that pieces of art need to have some kind of profound definition. If we look at Pop Art, where Claes Oldenburg is seen, among Andy Warhol and Roy Lichenstein, as being its most important American representative, we understand that a profound definition is exactly what he is avoiding. Pop Art emphasizes the banal elements in opposition to elitist culture and Claes Oldenburg, specifically, is believed to be making fun of that previous status of art.
Unfortunately as a trowel doesn’t play a vital role in my particular existence I was impelled to think at this particular sculpture as exaggerated in its emptiness, as a consciousness void.

Claes Oldenburg - "Plantoir 2001"

2nd Encounter

Here I am again at “Fundacao de Serralves”. This time I’ve decided to seat on a bench in order to relax, enjoy the piece of art I have in front of me. Since my last visit I realized that maybe I needed more time to fully appreciate it and try to understand the reason for this piece to have such recognition.
I’ve been trough all the technical aspects of it. It’s perfectly built, the scale seems perfect, the colors are strong.
On my purest innocence I keep searching for something more, something I can’t see straight away. Can’t seem to find it! Don’t even know where to start this search. Could try to develop some kind of notions about the significance of the object itself, or maybe the colors, or even maybe the relation with the place where it stands. As this is not working I’ll try, at least, to let some emotion arise… Apart for the same funny feeling I had on my first encounter I can only feel very small in comparison to this gigantic object.
Although I’ve avoided any deep research until this moment I know that this is exactly what Claes Oldenburg and Van Bruggen do. They recreate ordinary objects in a larger scale.

Claes Oldenburg - "Plantoir 2001"

1st Encounter

It was a sunny day in April. I went to “Fundacao de Serralves” - Porto, Portugal to see a Raushenberg exhibition. As I was leaving I decided to go for a walk on those amazing gardens they have around the main building. This was the moment I first got in touch with Claes Oldenburg work.
As I was walking I come across this fun, huge trowel dug in the middle of one of the gardens. It surprised me that the summer workshop had started this early and that kids had made such a big object. I even questioned if it had been there since the year before.
I truly don’t know if this superficial approach to Oldenburg’s work had anything to do with what I had just seen at the exhibition. Maybe my head was miles away…
Finally, I was able to find the slab so well hidden on the plants and when I understood the importance of such work I got really intrigued. Why would someone recreate a trowel in such proportion? What’s with this object that I don’t see? Was it done for some specific occasion or space? The colors: red, orange and silver. Basic, almost like a funny joke! I couldn’t really understand… From this first contact all I could retain was a pile of doubts and probably some kind of fresh, funny feeling.