Shoestring Potatoes Spilling from a Bag, by Claes Oldenburg, 1966 canvas, kapok, glue, acrylic Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
			Quick. Think of a monument near you. Is it a soldier on horseback? Monuments are usually memorials to wars and soldiers, but Claes Oldenburg thought differently. Together with his wife Coosje, he has made a giant monument of a cherry on a spoon (Minneapolis, Minn), a badminton shuttlecock (Kansas City, Mo.), and an extremely large clothespin (Philadelphia, Pa.). When you look at a monument, you are glimpsing a piece of history. Claes Oldenburg's typewriter eraser is a relic from the good ol' days of typewriters and rubbing out mistakes (before "delete" keys). Oldenburg played with one of these when he was a kid in his father's office. I bet he pretended to drop it over and over again in slow motion. See the way the bristles of the brush sweep upward, as if the giant soft-looking eraser has fallen and is just touching down in the Sculpture Garden? Oldenburg says that he gets inspiration for his art when he's eating. He's certainly made lots of art about food (which has definitely increased my appetite for art). He made painted plaster hamburgers, pies, and french fries that he sold to people for prices like $198.99. That's expensive for food, but cheap for art. Maybe one day I'll see Oldenburg at a fast food restaurant eating a double quarter-pounder with cheese and sketching his next monument. Did I mention the colossal peeled banana he had once planned for Times Square?