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Lot Essay
Oldenburg has kept daily “notebooks” of sketches and ideas since his childhood, and in recent years has explored extensively the mutability and monumentality of everyday objects. "Soft" sculpture ranks as one of his most important visual innovations, and he has advanced numerous proposals for colossal public monuments and constructions formulated from such commonplace objects as a baseball bat, a lipstick tube, a three-way electrical plug, an umbrella, and a screw.
The first version of a colossal screw proposal was a moving sculpture that would constantly be raised and lowered in the ground. In 1975, a soft screw sculpture was cast in urethane, and the idea of an arched screw of monumental size was explored in sketches and a lithograph (Arch in the Form of a Screw for Times Square, New York City).
In connection with plans for a new bridge over the New Maas river in Rotterdam, Oldenburg was commissioned in 1978 by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen to develop his own alternative ideas for a bridge. Joining two bent screws together, he arrived at a double suspension bridge, as depicted in a bronze model and in this print. Three states of the Double Screwarch print were published during 1980-1981, the first being a pure line etching of the bridge without landscape setting.
The two later states of the print are mature examples of Oldenburg’s draftsmanship and his increased involvement with the printmaking process, which probably resulted from his study of old master prints, especially those of Rembrandt and Hercules Segers. Each impression was made from five copper plates worked in the processes of spitbite, aquatint, hardground etching, and sanding; the plates were hand-wiped before printing. State Il is printed solely in black; state Ill is printed in colors and, in addition, the artist monotype-inked the plate before printing each impression, adding site- specific details such as cars and boats in the bustling harbor. In a few proofs outside the edition, Oldenburg experimented with different settings, ranging from a desert to the American Great Lakes. Despite the challenge to serious expectations presented by a bridge formed from a soft screw, the wit and monumentality of these proposals are undeniable.
David P. Becker, The Modern Art of the Print: Selections from the Collection of Lois and Michael Torf, p.105
The first version of a colossal screw proposal was a moving sculpture that would constantly be raised and lowered in the ground. In 1975, a soft screw sculpture was cast in urethane, and the idea of an arched screw of monumental size was explored in sketches and a lithograph (Arch in the Form of a Screw for Times Square, New York City).
In connection with plans for a new bridge over the New Maas river in Rotterdam, Oldenburg was commissioned in 1978 by the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen to develop his own alternative ideas for a bridge. Joining two bent screws together, he arrived at a double suspension bridge, as depicted in a bronze model and in this print. Three states of the Double Screwarch print were published during 1980-1981, the first being a pure line etching of the bridge without landscape setting.
The two later states of the print are mature examples of Oldenburg’s draftsmanship and his increased involvement with the printmaking process, which probably resulted from his study of old master prints, especially those of Rembrandt and Hercules Segers. Each impression was made from five copper plates worked in the processes of spitbite, aquatint, hardground etching, and sanding; the plates were hand-wiped before printing. State Il is printed solely in black; state Ill is printed in colors and, in addition, the artist monotype-inked the plate before printing each impression, adding site- specific details such as cars and boats in the bustling harbor. In a few proofs outside the edition, Oldenburg experimented with different settings, ranging from a desert to the American Great Lakes. Despite the challenge to serious expectations presented by a bridge formed from a soft screw, the wit and monumentality of these proposals are undeniable.
David P. Becker, The Modern Art of the Print: Selections from the Collection of Lois and Michael Torf, p.105