"I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself." Claes Oldenburg

The partnership of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, initiated in 1976, has born sculptures that are contemplative of their environs through the artists’ imaginative and singular approach. So fortuitous was their collaboration that in 1978 Van Bruggen relocated to New York where she continued her work with Oldenburg, seeking to expand their influence by creating monumentally scaled urban works. Ultimately, the two would bring the size of their installations to domestic proportions for a more holistic connection with their surroundings. The present lot Leaning Fork with Meatball & Spaghetti III from 1994 is exemplary of sculptural forays into the livable. Their utilization of a readymade, commonplace subject enables their art not only to feel intimate and accessible to their audience, but it also removes any imposed limitations by an overly formal composition. Oldenburg and van Bruggen have imbued infinite possibility into the quotidian through personification of their materials, as the fork rests up against the wall, as if having enjoyed a hearty helping of delectable Italian cuisine.

The Leaning Fork with Meatball & Spaghetti III seduces us with its aesthetic appeal, the thick yellow noodles drip off the meatball, almost as if submerged in the olive oil base of a marinara sauce. In this vein, the artistic duo has radically altered the object to evoke our collective psychological tendencies. In dismantling the avant-garde segregation of contemporary art from universal approachability, Oldenburg and van Bruggen have effectively reintroduced humor, warmth, and exuberance back into artwork. The present lot emanates with congenial warmth so tangible that it seems the pasta is radiating heat, as if right off the stove. Reflecting on this joyous impulse, Oldenburg has stated, “The important thing about humor is that it opens people. They relax their guard and you can get serious intentions across.” (Barabara Haskel, Claes Oldenburg: Object Into Monument, Pasadena, 1971, p. 8)