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In the print, a long silver spoon stretches out from the shore over a body of water. The spoon is outlined by a number of active etched lines and highlighted with touches of white. The blue-green water, created with aquatinted wash, takes up most of the printed area. Small white triangles dot the water—perhaps the boats in which one would “sail up to it on Sundays.” The shoreline is green highlighted by golden yellow, and the distant sky is enlivened by a single white cloud. The same active line that the artist used to create the spoon outlines the forms of the bank on the right and in the distance.
Oldenburg’s notes from the time reveal the associations he made between the subject and the medium. He writes, “Spoon associated with etching—burnishing” and “Analysis of elements in landscape translated in print elements each a material corresponding to other, f. ex. water—aquatint, line—coast (coastline).” [2]
For this Chicago-inspired image, Oldenburg chose a Chicago print shop, Landfall Press. He made the etching with Jack Lemon, who still owns the spoon, which had been acquired from a local diner. In 1973, Oldenburg began collaborating with Lemon on a series of lithographs. The following year, the artist began experimenting with etching in a series called the Erotic Fantasy Etchings, London. Those images, executed with fine lines and cross-hatching, did not require large areas of printed color, so Oldenburg challenged himself to create that effect in a print. He succeeded with Spoon Pier, using a soft-ground etching technique combined with aquatint, printed in four runs from four plates. The success of the technique led to more complex experiments in etching and aquatint in 1975. [3]
A seemingly simple image, Spoon Pier weaves together a number of important themes in Oldenburg’s work: a Pop art interest in everyday objects, the placement of those objects in the landscape in playful and absurd ways, the repetition of particular motifs, and a democratically-minded dedication to the production of art in multiples. Although he never built the spoon pier in Chicago, a related work, the celebrated Spoonbridge and Cherry has graced the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Walker Art Center, since 1988.
Notes:
[1] Barbara Haskell, Object Into Monument (Pasadena, CA: Pasadena Art Museum, 1971), 75.
[2] Richard H. Axsom and David Platzker, Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg. A Catalogue Raisonné 1958–1996 (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Madison Art Center, Wisconsin, 1997), 248.
[3] Axsom and Platzker, Printed Stuff, 30–31.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
2006-2007
Modern Fun! Prints from the ‘70s and ‘80s
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/3/2006-1/28/2007)
Published ReferencesReynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 194, 195
DepartmentAmerican Art
Spoon Pier
Artist
Claes Oldenburg
(1929 - 2022)
Date1975
MediumSoft-ground etching, sugar-lift and aquatint in four colors
DimensionsFrame: 30 1/4 x 24 1/4 in. (76.8 x 61.6 cm)
Paper: 28 x 22 in. (71.1 x 55.9 cm)
Image: 12 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. (31.8 x 26 cm)
SignedOldenburg
©1975
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
Copyright© 1975 Claes Oldenburg
Object number1983.2.26
DescriptionClaes Oldenburg, one of the leading figures of the Pop art movement, took the inspiration for Spoon Pier from his hometown of Chicago. Although he never completed it, he toyed with the idea of creating a large-scale sculpture based on this form: “The piers that jut out into Lake Michigan are favorable sites for my proposals. There’s the right amount of isolation so that the colossal object can be seen from all sides and from ‘sea level,’ where it appears most impressive and least recognizable. One sails up to it on Sundays to experience the curving forms.” [1] Oldenburg created the spoon-as-pier more than once in drawing and print. He completed the first drawing, now in the Menil Collection in Houston, in 1967. In the mid-1970s, during a period when he was actively making prints, he returned to the idea for an etching.In the print, a long silver spoon stretches out from the shore over a body of water. The spoon is outlined by a number of active etched lines and highlighted with touches of white. The blue-green water, created with aquatinted wash, takes up most of the printed area. Small white triangles dot the water—perhaps the boats in which one would “sail up to it on Sundays.” The shoreline is green highlighted by golden yellow, and the distant sky is enlivened by a single white cloud. The same active line that the artist used to create the spoon outlines the forms of the bank on the right and in the distance.
Oldenburg’s notes from the time reveal the associations he made between the subject and the medium. He writes, “Spoon associated with etching—burnishing” and “Analysis of elements in landscape translated in print elements each a material corresponding to other, f. ex. water—aquatint, line—coast (coastline).” [2]
For this Chicago-inspired image, Oldenburg chose a Chicago print shop, Landfall Press. He made the etching with Jack Lemon, who still owns the spoon, which had been acquired from a local diner. In 1973, Oldenburg began collaborating with Lemon on a series of lithographs. The following year, the artist began experimenting with etching in a series called the Erotic Fantasy Etchings, London. Those images, executed with fine lines and cross-hatching, did not require large areas of printed color, so Oldenburg challenged himself to create that effect in a print. He succeeded with Spoon Pier, using a soft-ground etching technique combined with aquatint, printed in four runs from four plates. The success of the technique led to more complex experiments in etching and aquatint in 1975. [3]
A seemingly simple image, Spoon Pier weaves together a number of important themes in Oldenburg’s work: a Pop art interest in everyday objects, the placement of those objects in the landscape in playful and absurd ways, the repetition of particular motifs, and a democratically-minded dedication to the production of art in multiples. Although he never built the spoon pier in Chicago, a related work, the celebrated Spoonbridge and Cherry has graced the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Walker Art Center, since 1988.
Notes:
[1] Barbara Haskell, Object Into Monument (Pasadena, CA: Pasadena Art Museum, 1971), 75.
[2] Richard H. Axsom and David Platzker, Printed Stuff: Prints, Posters, and Ephemera by Claes Oldenburg. A Catalogue Raisonné 1958–1996 (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Madison Art Center, Wisconsin, 1997), 248.
[3] Axsom and Platzker, Printed Stuff, 30–31.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
2006-2007
Modern Fun! Prints from the ‘70s and ‘80s
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (10/3/2006-1/28/2007)
Published ReferencesReynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 194, 195
Status
Not on viewCollections