Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: Kansas City's Shuttlecocks

Book excerpt: Claes Olderburg and Coosje van Bruggen: Kansas City’s Shuttlecocks By: Edward J. Olszewski Claes Olderburg and Coosje van Bruggen: Kansas City’s Shuttlecocks is a study of the commission and vicissitudes of a project by the world-renowned sculptors Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen for a major art museum and a public setting. The controversy that the commission initiated presented a challenge to explain a misunderstood work of art in an attempt to confirm the rightness of its acceptance. It is important for the reader to appreciate how artists resolve conflicts, how modern art functions, and to understand something of the cognitive issues undertaken by collaborative artists in the creative process.