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Pop artist Claes Oldenburg, the creator with Coosje van Bruggen of "Torn Notebook" died Monday at 93.
The monumental "Torn Notebook" sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen sits at the corner of 12th and Q streets.
It might have been a coffee cup or a roller skate. It certainly wasn’t going to be a football.
Instead, after a drive from Kansas City to Lincoln, and much deliberation, the sculpture Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen created for the Sheldon Museum of Art became a spiral notebook that, like Oldenburg’s own sketchbooks, was ripped in half, with pages scattering to the wind.
“He was working on a commission in Kansas City and came up to the campus,” said George Neubert, Sheldon’s director in the early ’90s. “Quite frankly, he was extremely impressed by what we had done and, after the tour, said, ‘I’d like to be part of this collection.’ Then he chose the site, right on the edge of campus, very purposefully. He wanted to interact with the community."
Titled “Torn Notebook,” the monumental sculpture was installed in a newly developed small park at 12th and Q streets — the intersection between the city and the university campus.
“I think our sculpture is very often in an urban context and relates to urban events,” Oldenburg told me a week before the sculpture was unveiled in 1996. “For example, you can imagine blowing papers on a city street that would relate to this sculpture or perhaps the movement of traffic. It is true that it’s kind of a city sculpture.
“But it's also referring to the university in the sense that it’s a notebook and a textbook and it stresses that side of the university, the textual side, rather than any of the other things the university is known for. It’s a book, after all, a book that records thought and so on. For that reason, it’s appropriate, we think, for a university site.”
Oldenburg died Monday at 93, leaving behind a legacy that changed the nature of public art around the world.
“The way he transformed public art was so exciting, unparalleled at that point,” Neubert said. “He created a new context, new imagery for public art.”
The son of a diplomat who in 1936 was appointed Swedish consul general in Chicago, Oldenburg grew up there and attended the Latin School of Chicago. He studied literature and art history at Yale University before returning to the Midwest to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and draw comic strips for the City News Bureau of Chicago.
It is likely that Oldenburg’s affinity for the Midwest led not only to “Torn Notebook” being in Lincoln – he told me that he was drawn to Nebraska by its geography – but the placement of some of his most iconic works in the region – “Bat Column” in Chicago, “Shuttlecocks” at Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, “Crusoe Umbrella” and “Plantoir” in Des Moines and “Spoonbridge and Cherry” in Minneapolis.
Oldenburg’s career began in the late 1950s as part of the New York art scene, where he embraced the “Happenings” of the era and began creating small sculptures of everyday items that he presented in installations like 1961’s “The Store.”
The small plaster pieces, over the course of the decade, transformed in large “Soft” sculptures of hamburgers, ice cream cones and, in the case of a 1969 object Neubert acquired for Sheldon’s collection, a “Soft Drum Set.”
Then came the monumental sculptures that drew on Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades,” which turned common manufactured objects like a stool and bicycle wheel into art objects. But Oldenburg’s pieces were all specifically created, not manufactured.
Oldenburg’s approach to the combination of common objects with sculpture made him one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century.
“Oldenburg brought a number of different things to the game,” said Lincoln multi-disciplinary artist Charley Friedman. “He brought a sense of humor through the lens of capitalism. He created an ironic distance with that. He used everyday items, but he changed the scale of them. Scale is always part of sculpture, but it’s usually one-to-one. He exaggerated that. In American culture, we ‘Big Gulp’ everything. In the ‘60s, he realized that ‘Big Gulp’ was part of the American language and brought it into his work.”
Oldenburg was also one of the first sculptors to collaborate with those who fabricated his work.
In doing so, “he gave permission to other artists, Jeff Koons is one, Michael Heizer, Charles Ray,” Friedman said. ”Even me, for sure, there’s Oldenburg in my works.”
“Torn Notebook” is one of the more than 40 sculptures that were collaborations between Oldenburg and van Bruggen, a Dutch writer and curator who he married in 1977. She died from breast cancer in 2007.
“I think it’s one of their most successful in many ways,” Neubert said. “There’s no question Claes and Coosje had a special relationship. But in many ways, ‘Torn Notebook’ reflects both of them more than many of their other pieces. The notes she took on the drive and in Lincoln are reflected in the piece. It is really a successful collaboration.”
It is also, arguably, the most iconic and popular monumental sculpture in Lincoln and will likely remain so for decades to come.
"Torn Notebook," by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, at the corner of 12th and Q streets, is one of the public art masterworks in Lincoln.
The sculpture "Reflection," by Albert Paley, is located at Ninth Street and Salt Creek Parkway. The sculpture previously was on display in New York as part of the "Paley on Park Avenue" exhibition.
Artist Mark di Suvero used red beams to create Old Glory, located at Cather Garden on UNL campus, to represent the flag when seen against a blue sky with clouds.
Pitch, Roll & Yaw, a new sculpture by Lincoln artist Shannon Hansen, is lifted into place at the entrance to the Lincoln Airport in July 2015. The piece, in the shape of a giant paper airplane, was made of formed and fabricated steel by Rivers Metal Products of Lincoln from Hansen's design. The $100,000 sculpture was commissioned by the city of Lincoln and paid for by Duncan Aviation. Another of Hansen's pieces, Discover, is at Union Plaza.
Watchful Citizen was first produced as a small, desk-size casting called “Couch Potato” and later recreated life-size and renamed. It sits in the Haymarket at Seventh and P streets.
The sculpture Mbera, at the center of the roundabout at 33rd Street and Sheridan Boulevard, was a gift from the Marc LeBaron family to the city of Lincoln several years ago.
The Gettysburg Lincoln, by Daniel Chester French, is at the Nebraska State Capitol, west entrance.
Union College's Clocktower is undoubtedly the tallest artwork in Lincoln.
Artist David Young tests the stream of water flowing from his bronze sculpture "Rebekah at the Well" during a private ceremony unveiling the sculpture at Sunken Gardens in 2005.
Sculpture of child is at the Lincoln Children's Museum, 1420 P St.
"Groundwater Colossus" is a focal point at the Union Plaza in Antelope Valley. The sculpture is a personification of the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest aquifers and most important natural resources in the nation. Designed by James Tyler of New York, the sculpture sits near the Jayne Snyder Trail Center near 21st and P streets.
Artist Jun Kaneko's glass tower, Ascent, is illuminated on Dec. 21, 2014, at the Lincoln Community Foundation Tower Square at 13th and P streets.
Jene Highstein's Tem, will again be displayed on Centennial Mall along with its companion piece, Ptah.
"Acklie Fountain" was a gift in honor of Duane and Phyllis Acklie by their children in 2006. It combines corn maiden faces from the original Cornhusker hotel and some flower-like ornaments from the old City Hall.
Iron Horse Legacy (pictured in 2002) by Lincoln artist Jay Tschetter is located at Lincoln Station.
Floating Figure, by Gaston Lachaise, is at Sheldon Sculpture Garden, UNL campus.
James Surls' "Vase with Five Flowers," a bronze and stainless steel sculpture owned by local art collectors Karen and Robert Duncan, could be used in the center of the 14th and Superior streets roundabout. It is among artwork the Duncans will loan to the city for use in a public space.
Deb Bridges created this bench on the northeast corner of 12th and P Streets as part of the Slave Free Nebraska Public Heart Project.
"Garden of Faith, Hope, and Love" by Cathy Harrington is seen at Marcus Lincoln Grand Cinema as part of the Hildegard Center for the Arts' Doorways to Hope public art project in 2014.
Artist Gina Egenberger's work, Incandescent Flight, is on display in front of the Lied Center for Performing Arts in November 2014. The public art project celebrated the 25th anniversary of Lighthouse.
Kenny Smetter (left) and Tanner Russell of Chet's Transfer nudge the 2003 Tour de Lincoln piece, "Balancing the Books," into place outside the Gere Branch Library in 2014.
Liz Shea-McCoy, project director for Star Art — The Star City Art Project 2006, hangs out with her sculpture “Reach for the Stars.”
Ellen Wright, an environmental health educator with Public Works and Utilities, Miki Esposito, Public Works and Utilities director, promote the artistic snowplow project in December 2012.
Look Ma, No Hands, by Kendrik, Helms, Helms & Raddatz, at Normal and A streets.
Dan Peragine's Noos stands in Beau Richmond Park at 27th and Holdrege streets.
A mural by Jay Tschetter flanks the main entrance to the F Street Community Center.
An improvised mural by Lincoln artist Spencer Pacheco is making its way around the Kiechel Fine Art Building, 1208 O St. The mural eventually covered two sides of the four-story building.
Solar Semaphore by Jerome Kirk stands at 12th and O streets.
Lyman Whitaker's Double Spinner creates an optical illusion of perpetual expansion when it is blown by the wind at the Pioneers Park Nature Center.
The War and Victory sculpture by Ellis Burman in Antelope Park.
Hundreds of people file past the "Candy Box," an art piece in the concourse at Pinnacle Bank Arena after the arena's ribbon cutting on Aug. 29, 2013.
Mountain Monarch, by Rich Haines, stands at the Pioneers Park north entrance, off West Van Dorn Street. The sculpture is one of two at Pioneers Park that make the top 10 most valuable list of public art in Lincoln.
27th Street Hearth by Michael Morgan at Elaine Hammer Bridge Plaza.
If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again sculpture in Witherbee Park.
Rarin' to Ride by George W. Lundeen in Woods Park.
Frog Baby by Edith Barretto Stevens Parsons in Hamann Rose Garden.
Daydreams by Sondra L. Johnson in Cooper Park.
Sculptor Ben Victor (behind) watches as descendants of Chief Standing Bear help to unveil his sculpture on Centennial Mall. The sculpture is valued at $150,000.
Harvest, a sculpture in front of Pinnacle Bank Arena at Canopy and R streets, was dedicated in 2016. The $972,000 piece by Ed Carpenter was paid for using money set aside for artwork during the arena's original planning.
One of the Four Seasons Terminals sculptures at Kontras Park.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com. On Twitter @KentWolgamott
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L. Kent Wolgamott, the recipient of the 2018 Mayor’s Arts Award, has written about arts and entertainment for Lincoln newspapers since 1985, reviewing thousands of movies and concerts and hundreds of art exhibitions.
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Pop artist Claes Oldenburg, the creator with Coosje van Bruggen of "Torn Notebook" died Monday at 93.
The monumental "Torn Notebook" sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen sits at the corner of 12th and Q streets.
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