Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cleveland’s Free Stamp

By Edward J. Olszewski

In 1985, the Sohio oil company commissioned Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen to design and construct a large outdoor sculpture for its new corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. The result was Free Stamp, a bold and distinctive installation that captured both a Pop Art sensibility and a connection to the city’s industrial past. Sohio executives approved the design, and work was already underway, when British Petroleum acquired the company. The new owners quickly decided that the sculpture was “inappropriate” for their building and attempted to rid themselves of Free Stamp by donating it to the city of Cleveland—a gift that the city initially had no desire to accept. After much debate and public protest, the sculpture found a home in Willard Park, where it stands today.

This is the first study of any sculpture by Oldenburg and van Bruggen to examine the genesis of their art from conception to installation. Edward J. Olszewski has put together a fascinating narrative based on interviews with the artists, archival material from city records, and in-house corporate memoranda, as well as letters to the editor and political cartoons. He traces the development of the sculpture from the artists’ first sketches and models to the installation of the completed work in its urban environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Release date: Aug 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9780821446034

Edward J. Olszewski

Edward J. Olszewski is emeritus professor of art history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He has published numerous books and articles on topics from Praxiteles to Renaissance master drawings, late Roman Baroque patronage, and the art of Goya, Degas, and Picasso.

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Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cleveland’s Free Stamp

Invitation to the dedication of Free Stamp

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cleveland’s Free Stamp

Edward J. Olszewski

OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

ATHENS

Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

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© 2017 by Ohio University Press

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Front cover: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, 1990, Willard Park, Cleveland, Ohio. Photo by author

Half title page: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, interior view. Photo by John T. Seyfried © ICA-Art Conservation 2015

Page 190: Free Stamp (with Cesar Pelli’s Key Bank Building)

Back cover: Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, and Frank Gehry at Gehry’s office, September 1988. Photograph © 1988 Sidney F. Felsen

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Olszewski, Edward J., 1937– author.

Title: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cleveland’s Free Stamp / Edward J. Olszewski.

Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017023507| ISBN 9780821422717 (hardback) | ISBN 9780821446034 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Oldenburg, Claes, 1929–Free stamp. | Oldenburg, Claes, 1929—Criticism and interpretation. | Bruggen, Coosje van—Criticism and interpretation. | Outdoor sculpture—Ohio—Cleveland. | Public sculpture—Ohio—Cleveland. | BISAC: ART / History / Contemporary (1945–).

Classification: LCC NB237.O42 A64 2017 | DDC 730.92—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017023507

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Sohio, Free Stamp, and BP

2. The Artists

3. Sculptural Collaborations

4. Rejection and Recuperation

5. The Legal Issue

6. Impasse: June 1986 to September 1989

7. Other Voices, Other Rooms

8. Rejected Sculpture

9. An Early Apologetic

10. Pop Art

11. Formalism

12. A Meeting of Minds

13. Fabrication

14. The Final Phase

15. Public Art

16. Re: Locations

17. The Sketches

18. How Stamps Function

19. Construction of a Hand Stamp

20. Space in Time

21. Cognition

22. Events Postinstallation

Postscript

Appendix A: Petition Letter of September 15, 1989, to Mr. James H. Ross

Appendix B: Ordinance No. 1320-85, May 22, 1985

Chronology

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Half title page: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, interior view

Frontispiece: Invitation to the dedication of Free Stamp

FIGURES

1. Architectural rendering of Free Stamp in front of Sohio Headquarters in Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio [1986]

2. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, 1991

3. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, frontal view

4. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, rear view

5. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp sited on model of Sohio Headquarters in Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio, 1983

6. William Ward, Firefighters’ Monument, 1965

7. Archibald M. Willard, Spirit of ’76, 1912

8. Claes Oldenburg, sketch for hand stamp sculpture, 1988

9. Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg at Spirit of the Monument symposium, 1992

10. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Crusoe Umbrella, 1979

11. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Flashlight, 1981

12. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Gartenschlauch (Garden Hose), 1983

13. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Screwarch, 1983

14. Frank Gehry, Coosje van Bruggen, and Claes Oldenburg in the Frank Gehry Studio, 1988

15. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Shuttlecocks, 1994

16. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Bottle of Notes, 1993

17. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Torn Notebook, 1996

18. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cupid’s Span, 2002

19. Claes Oldenburg, Proposed Monument for Mill Rock, East River, New York: Slice of Strawberry Cheesecake, 1992

20. Claes Oldenburg, Typewriter Eraser, Scale X 2/4, 1999

21. Claes Oldenburg during the installation of Giant Three-Way Plug, Scale A 1/3, 1970

22. Tomb of John D. Rockefeller, 1902

23. Palimpsest of Cleveland Rubber Stamp Sign, Capitol Clothes Building

24. Ray Osrin cartoon, Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 4, 1986

25. James G. Hamilton, Moses Cleaveland, 1888

26. Marshall Fredericks, War Memorial Fountain, 1964

27. Isamu Noguchi, Portal, 1976

28. Billie Lawless, The Politician: A Toy, 1988

29. James G. Hamilton, Harvey Rice Monument, 1899

30. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Marcus Hanna, 1908

31. Levi T. Scofield, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, 1896

32. Window advertisement, Ohio Legal Blank Company

33. Claes Oldenburg, Giant Toothpaste Tube, 1964

34. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1988

35. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Balancing Tools, 1984

36. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Dropped Bowl with Scattered Slices and Peels, 1990

37. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Inverted Collar and Tie, 1994

38. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Bicyclette Ensevelie (Buried Bicycle), 1990

39. J. Robert Jennings for Lippincott, Inc., plans and elevations of Free stamp, 1990

40. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, welding joins

41. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, interior view

42. Anon., Portrait of Archibald Willard

43. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Cross Section of a Toothbrush with Paste, in a Cup, on a Sink: Portrait of Coosje’s Thinking, 1983

44. BP America Building, Cleveland, Ohio

45. H. Burnham and Company, Cuyahoga Building, 1892

46. Implosion of Cuyahoga and Williamson Buildings, 1982

47. Joseph Pennell, The Cleveland Bridges, 1919

48. Claes Oldenburg, proposed colossal monument for Stora Höggarn, Stockholm: Stamp, 1966

49. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, notebook page: study for stamp interior, 1984

50. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, study for a sculpture in the form of a stamp, for Cleveland, Ohio, UNSOLVED [1983]

51. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, first version, model, 1985–91

52. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp on extended lettering, 1985

53. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, second version, model, 1985–91

54. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, notebook page: study of stamp proportions, 1984

55. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, 1984

56. Ketchum, Konkel, Barrett, Nickel, and Austin for Lippincott, Inc., plan of Free Stamp base, 1985

57. Chicago Bridge and Iron Company for Lippincott, Inc., plan for handle elevation of Free Stamp, 1985

58. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, view of Free Stamp with figure for scale, 1987(?)

59. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, thrown version, model, 1985–91

60. J. Robert Jennings for Lippincott, Inc., letters, face elevation, 1990

61. Lippincott, Inc., plan and elevation of Free Stamp, 1990

62. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp

63. Claes Oldenburg, Soft Saxophone, 1990

64. Fauquignon, Friar, 1870s

65. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, installation of Free Stamp, 1991

66. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, assemblage of Free Stamp, 1991

67. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, rigging placement

68. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, placement of lettering

69. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp

70. Service Employees Union, Local 47, flyer, 1991

71. Jeff Darcy cartoon, Congress’ Stamp of Approval, Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 24, 1993

72. Jeff Darcy cartoon, To Bernie Kosar, Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 9, 1993

73. Bill Watterson, cartoon, Garfield–Maple Heights Sun, May 1, 1986

Free Stamp (with Cesar Pelli’s Key Bank Building)

PREFACE

Cleveland’s Free Stamp deserves consideration as an unusual project in Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s successful decades-long collaborations on large-scale, public sculptures. It is the first of their works to include writing. In expansion of size, it is the largest of their public sculptures relative to its prototype. Its genesis was the simplest of their many projects, arrived at with minimal discussion and without complicated explorations of drawings and models. Free Stamp became the most controversial of their projects, and was one of lengthiest in coming to fruition.

Transfer of the sculpture from its original corporate domain to a civic setting opened Free Stamp to public scrutiny, judgment, and controversy. The latter posed the dilemma of artistic freedom in a public space, a dialectic which Coosje van Bruggen elaborated in a public address after completion of the project. This study reconstructs the history of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Free Stamp from its commission and genesis in the artists’ collaboration to its temporary rejection, then reacceptance. A new location required a metamorphosis of the rejected sculpture into a new work of art. The reasons for its relocation are probed, touching on political and cultural issues that amplify the international scope of the commission. Surveys of public sculpture in Cleveland and of Oldenburg and van Bruggen’s outdoor sculptures present a backdrop to the commission, and offer insights on the meaning and content of Free Stamp. Their collaboration is characterized, and special requirements for the fabrication of their large works are considered. Creativity as a cognitive process offers further understanding of the genesis of the sculpture.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to many people who agreed to interviews and offered archival information in recreating the background for the sculpture commission. Hunter Morrison, director, City Planning Commission, was generous with his time and gracious in giving access to correspondence and relevant documents. Similarly, Jay Westbrook, president of Cleveland’s City Council, was open for discussions and sharing of documents, such as minutes of meetings of City Council, and was a driving force in guiding appropriate legislation for acceptance by the City of the sculpture gift. I thank Martin Hauserman, archivist for Cleveland City Council, for his patient responses to my queries. I am grateful to Jane Tesso, art administration consultant of the BP America Corporate Collection, for access to information about the importance of art for Sohio and BP as reflected in in-house communications, and for background on her involvement with the eventual installation of Free Stamp. Legal files from BP have since been deposited in the archives of the Cleveland Historical Society. I am also thankful to Nick T. Giorgianni, director of property services for Sohio and BP America, for clarifying in-house attempts at BP to rescue the commission.

Leslie Cade and Peter Buettner provided access to memos and clipping files in the archive of the Cleveland Museum of Art. I am indebted to Betsy Lantz, head of the Ingalls Library, and her capable staff at the Cleveland Museum of Art for research support. Early drafts of the text were read by Carol Nathanson, Gabriel P. Weisberg, Holly Witchey, and John Garton, whose useful suggestions were greatly appreciated, as were those of an anonymous reader for Ohio University Press. I am indebted to the editorial and design staffs of the Press for the care and effort devoted to my text: Nancy Basmajian, Ricky Huard, and Beth Pratt.

Quotations of the sculptors in this text which are not cited are taken from the proceedings of the symposium Spirit of the Monument, April 11, 1992, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. An audio record on VHS tape is preserved in the Archives of American Art and in the Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio. I would like to acknowledge Suzanne Ferguson, dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, for recognizing both the significance of Free Stamp for the city of Cleveland and the importance of the symposium on the sculpture of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, from which this text originated. Her full support of the program is greatly appreciated. I am also indebted to Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg for several conversations about the project, and to Carey Ascenzo and Alexandra Lane of the Oldenburg van Bruggen Studio for assistance of every kind, but mostly technical, and for graciously providing images of sculptures and permissions to publish them in illustration of the text. In May 2014, Case Western Reserve University presented Mr. Oldenburg with an honorary degree, and the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) began a conservation campaign to restore surface abrasion and interior metal oxidation; the procedures are recorded in a video documentary available from the ICA. Ann Albano, director of the Sculpture Center, initiated final arrangements for the conservation of Free Stamp with BP offices in Houston, Texas. I am indebted to Albert Albano and Mark Erdman of the ICA for background on the project.

Aspects of this study were presented in the following venues: "Oldenburg / van Bruggen and Free Stamp: Re:Installation and Iconology, Cleveland Museum of Art, October 25, 2001; Rejection and Acceptance: The Story of Free Stamp, the Sculpture Center, January 31, 2002, Cleveland, Ohio; Configuration and Iconology in Cleveland’s Free Stamp Sculpture," Midwest Art History Society, 29th Annual Conference, April 19, 2002, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Photographic Credits: Richard Adler, 10; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, 21; author, 22, 23, 25, 26–29, 31, 39, 42, 45, 60–62, 64, 68, 190; Barcroft Media, 24, 71, 72; Case Western Reserve University Archives, 9; Archive, Cleveland City Hall, 7; the Cleveland Museum of Art, 33; Cleveland Public Library, 46; Sidney Felsen, 14, back cover; National Gallery of Art, Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 20; Joseph Karabinus, Cleveland, Ohio, 65; courtesy of the Oldenburg van Bruggen Studio, 1, 5, 8, 10–13, 15–19, 21, 34–39, 43, 49–61, 65; John Seyfried, 2–4, 41, 66, 67; Skissernas Museum, Archive of Public Art, Lund University, Sweden, 48; John Spence, 17; Bill Waterson, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, 73; Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, 31, 42, 45; Ellen Page Wilson, New York, 19, 59.

Photographs: Richard Adler, 21; author, front cover, frontispiece, 6–8, 22–30, 32, 39, 40, 42, 44, 47, 71–73, page 190; D. James Dee, 55; Sidney B. Felson, 14, back cover; Karabinus Photography, 65–67; Emma Krantz, 48; Attilio Maranzano, 10–13, 15, 16, 18, 34–37, 43; Oldenburg van Bruggen Studio, 1, 5, 20, 21, 33, 38, 39, 43, 49, 50, 54, 56–58, 60, 61, 65; John Seyfried, Intermuseum Conservation Association, 2–4, 68–69, half title; Ellen Paige Wilson, 59; Dorothy Zeidman, 51.

INTRODUCTION

I tell you it is a great relief to have the opportunity to throw out the stamp and to have it land in such a beautiful place.

—Coosje van Bruggen¹

I always feel that the end result . . . should be apt and all that, and it should set up a witty relation between large and small, but in the end it should also be something that is formally successful and has a certain beauty.

—Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen were commissioned to design a sculpture for a specific site in front of a new corporate headquarters for Sohio in downtown Cleveland (fig. 1). The contract of July 26, 1985, called for the sculptors’ design to integrate sculpture, plaza, and building on Public Square as a cohesive unit. The original rubber stamp project never materialized. After several years’ delay, a revised sculpture was dedicated, with a different location and a changed position. The project’s commission and rejection, its rescue and revision, bear recounting because a knowledge of the vicissitudes in the installation of the sculpture can lead to a better understanding of the work in its present location.² The account in this book will be informed by a broader consideration of public sculpture in Cleveland, of other projects by Oldenburg and van Bruggen, and by a discussion of the nature and technology of the stamping process, as well as some observations about scale, metaphor in art, and cognitive approaches to creativity.

Figure 1    Architectural rendering of Free Stamp in front of Sohio headquarters in Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio [1986], drawing. Courtesy of the Oldenburg van Bruggen Studio

Aristotle considered objects that have a certain mimetic basis in reality to be appealing because they delight the eye and engage the intellect. In this he anticipated Étienne Gilson, who would refer to the easy pleasure of representational art. This would seem to be enough for an audience to appreciate Cleveland’s Free Stamp sculpture. In the sixteenth century, the painter and artists’ biographer Giorgio Vasari wrote of works of art as piacevoli inganni, or pleasing deceits, indicating that they were something other than what they pretended to be. When is a hand stamp not a hand stamp? When it is enlarged and no longer functional. But then is it still a hand stamp? Or is it just a pleasing deceit? Cleveland’s Free Stamp confirmed the observations of Aristotle and Vasari. It was a late entry in the rich tradition of large-scale sculptures by Oldenburg and van Bruggen placed in major cities throughout the world, from