Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen

Currently on view at Houston’s Menil Collection, Drawings on Site brings together a selection of drawings from Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The two artists share sketches for proposed public monuments from the last 30 years. Oldenburg, an innovator in the American Pop Art movement, proposed many public works based on familiar objects. In part, his ideas were challenges to traditional models of sculpture. Oldenburg was joined by Coosje van Bruggen in 1976. Together they would propose a number of sculptures, some unfeasible. In the pitches, Oldenburg developed new drawing techniques that merged the spontaneous with a stylization of architectural drawing.