Lot 43 | Claes Oldenburg | "Pool Balls"

OLDENBURG, CLAES
1929 Stockholm - 2022 New York

Title: "Pool Balls".
Date: 1977.
Technique: Gouache, watercolour, charcoal, pencil and collage on Fabriano (watermark).
Measurement: 33,5 x 48cm.
Notation: Monogrammed and dated lower right: CO. 77. As well as titled in the centre: "Pool Balls".
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.


Provenance:
- Kasper König Collection, Berlin (directly from the artist)

Exhibitions:
- Gallery Thomas Fischer, Berlin 2018

"Skulptur Projekte Münster"
The exhibition series 'Skulptur Projekte Münster', which is continued every ten years, shows numerous artistic positions and interventions in public space in 1977. The exhibition was preceded by a debate in 1973 in the course of the installation of the sculpture ''Drei rotierende Quadrate'' (Three Rotating Squares) by George Rickey. In response, Klaus Bußmann devised an exhibition concept with Kasper König and König was responsible for the project area of sculptures in public space, for which he selected eight artists. König's many years of residence in New York and Halifax led him to select five artists living in the USA, including Claes Oldenburg.

Claes Oldenburg's memories
Oldenburg describes the realisation of the project as follows: 'The next thing that Kasper and I did together was in 1976. I had become friends with Coosje van Bruggen who had been a curator at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and we worked together and began to live together. In 1977 we were married. It was big year, because it was also the year of the Münster Sculpture Exhibition, Kasper's first in his hometown. Coosje and I developed the Pool Balls, the first work with Coosje that we did entirely together. We studied the history of Münster and its siege by Groningen - Coosje's birthplace in Holland. Cannonballs from that battle were found embedded all over Münster. We transformed them into pool balls and came up with a sculpture that was eventually only three balls. It was supposed to be more balls, but Münster only had the money for three, which worked out okay. They were very large, people played with them, painted them, and sat on them. One artist built a house around them but they haven't rolled away from where we placed them.'

Positioning at the Aasee
The drawing for the positioning of the 'Giant Pool Balls', 1977 at the Aasee in Münster shows the possibilities discussed in the context of the project. While in the foreground the lake extends in gestural strokes with a sailing boat travelling on it, the bright 'Giant Pool Balls' can be found again on the hill in the form of spheres. Another pool ball is positioned on the shore to the right, where the final location was also chosen. The work demonstrates Oldenburg's close relationship with König, who has regularly collaborated with the artist since the exhibition in Stockholm in 1966 and as director of the Mouse Museum in Kassel in 1972.