The Spoon Bridge & Cherry, is a work of Art by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The Spoon was built by MRI and the Cherry was built by Paul E. Luke Inc., a shipyard in Maine that built boats, but also the best stainless steel marine stoves. It was installed by the Lippincott Brothers of North Haven CT.
Claes was in charge, the creator and decision maker, the Lippincott’s would manage everything. They wanted an aluminum boatbuilder that owned an Eckold bending machine to do the Spoon with finesse and discovered that MRI had one. This was our first work of Art, and it was for one of the most famous Sculptors in the World. That lead to more work not only for Claes and Coosje, but other famous artists, too.
The work of Art is a fountain squirting water, like so many are, so you can see the water is dripping from the cherry in the photo. The internal plumbing is stainless steel piping.
I love this piece and all their works in general, they are elegant in their simplicity. Color adds a tremendous amount, which you can see, if you can find the other work of Art in the background to the left, painted black. Color is king and the paint jobs have to be superb, fasteners have to be hidden from view. Art Work has to last forever, including its beauty. In writing the contract they were concerned on how to define the quality of painting. The wrote words that filled one entire page describing acceptable success. In boatbuilding our contracts would say “Courageous like” to sum it up.